Introduction

Recruitment and selection forms a core part of the central activities underlying human resource management: namely, the aquisition, development and reward of workers. It

frequently forms an important part of the work of human resource managers.

Recruitment and selection is very pivitol to an organization as it is the foundation by which a company is created. This is the process that recruits and selects employees that become the

organization and determine the culture of the work space along with the quality of work that is produced by an organization.

In this project we take a close look at the recruitment and selection process with emphasis

on traditional and current recruitment methods as well as the various types of interviews in the selection process.

We also take a look at the recruitment selection process of 3 organizations belonging to different industries.

Tata Consultancy Services- IT

Groupon India- E-commerce Fortis Healthcare- Hospitals

Theories of Recruitment Objective theory

Assumes applicants use a very rational method for making decisions Thus, the more information you can give them (e.g. salaries, benefits,working

condition, etc), the better applicants weight these factors to arrive at a relative “desirability” index

Subjective theory

Assumes applicants are not rational, but respond to social or psychological needs

(e.g. security, achievement, affiliation)

Thus, play to these needs by highlighting job security or opportunities for promotion or collegiality of work group, etc.

Critical Contact theory

Assumes key attractor is quality of contact with the recruiter or recruiter behavior, e.g. (promptness, warmth, follow-up calls, sincerity, etc.)

Research indicates that more recruiter contact enhances acceptance of offer, also experienced recruiter (e.g. middle-aged) more successful than young or

inexperienced recruiter - may be especially important when recruiting ethnic minorities, women, etc

Process of Recruitment

Methods of Recruitment

Traditional Recruiting Methods

Recruiting is hardly a new concept for businesses, no matter if they’re new or established. Despite the rapid pace of change in HR methods, many of the classic recruiting methods still have roles to play in today’s world.

Job Ads in the Local Paper

Newspapers are one of the oldest methods of connecting with people in their homes, and

are still picked up and read by a large segment of the population today. In addition to

traditional home delivery papers, most media companies now operate parallel online news sites. Make sure you check if your ad will be posted to both mediums, before you decide if

it’s worth the investment.

Postings at the local Employment Office

Your local unemployment office will always be filled with people looking for work. Usually

operating an extensive candidate database, financial hiring support programs, and supplementary training for struggling applicants, the employment office is a great place to

affordably find many types of employees, very quickly.

Using Temp Agencies

Temporary employment agencies are quite common, and are occasionally their employees’

only source of income for extended periods of time. Experienced temporary workers can often pick up new tasks very quickly. When employers aren’t confident what the right

applicant for the job will look like, or are only in need of short-term project help, these are a great way to go.

Hiring Internally

Hiring internally is a time-tested way to ensure you have the right person for the job, and is also probably one of the easiest. You and your team already personally know the people

who work at your company, and you know their work history and performance. Making a decision can be difficult, and hiring internally can cause problems, but the savings in

recruiting and training costs can be significant.

Modern Recruiting Methods

The world is growing and changing, and so is the world of recruiting. New technologies like

the internet and smartphones have made information available any time and anywhere.

Leverage Smart Phones

Smart phones access to countless applications and virtually any web page. Job candidates

the world over are glued to their phones. Interact in their space by optimizing your careers portal, providing ample information about your company online, and even leveraging

older phone features like SMS for recruiting.

Tap in to Social Media

It is quite common to use the services of social media, when you are recruiting today, since

it is both inexpensive and allows you to form a vast pool of potential candidates, within a very short period of time. Social media websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

have communities where potential employees submit their resumes and credentials in the hope of landing a job.

While the mediums of traditional recruiting and modern recruiting are different, the underlying strategies are still largely the same. Find an audience, talk to it, and hope that

words spreads. Modern recruiting, however, offers the added convenience of faster and wider information dissemenation, with opportunities for feedback and engagement.

Outsourcing

Under this arrangement company may draw the required personnel from the outsourcing firms or agencies or commission basis rather than offering them employment. This is also

called leasing of human resources. The outsourcing firms develop their human resource pools by employing people for them and make available the personnel to various companies (called clients) as per their needs.

The outsourcing firms get payment for their services to their clients and give salary directly to the personnel. The personnel deputed by the outsourcing agencies with the clients are

not the employees of the clients. They continue to be on the payroll of their employees, that is, the outsourcing agencies.

Several outsourcing companies or agencies have come up which supply human resources of various categories to their clients. A company in need of employees of certain categories

can approach an outsourcing company and avail the services of it human resources.

The advantages of getting human resources through the outsourcing agencies are:

1. The companies need not plan for human resources much in advance. They can get

human resources on lease basis from an outsourcing agency.

2. The companies are free from industrial relations problems as human resources take on lease are not their employees.

3. The companies can dispense with this category of employees immediately after the work is over.

Poaching or Raiding

Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working in another reputed company, which might be a rival in the industry. A company can attract

talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions.

Whatever may be the means used to raid rival firms for potential candidates, it I often seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. In fact, raiding has become a challenge

for human resource managers of modern organization. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe brunt of poaching today.

Job Portals or e-Recruitment

Many big organizations use Internet as a source of recruitment. They advertise the job vacancies through the worldwide web (www) as well as post vacancies on Job portals like naukri.com, monster.com etc. The job seekers send their applications or CVs through e-mail

using Internet, which can be drawn by the prospective employer depending upon their requirements.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Traditional and Current methods of Recruitment Advantages of Traditional Methods of recruitment

Advertising reaches a wider audience

Campus recruitments given the employer the opportunity to hire top students and

mold them to what they like

Also employee referrals boost the employees morale when their candidate is selected and can expedite the process

Promotions ensure that the quality of candidate is known and increased ethusiam to work

Internal transfers provide a job rotation opportunity that enhances the company

and the employee

Disadvantages of Traditional Methods of Recruitment

Advertising is a costly method of recruitment

Campus placements do not insure proper accessing of candidates potential

Traditional methods offer only a limited scope for candidates

If employee referrals are not acted upon then it may lead to employee demotivation

Advantages of Current Methods of recruitment

When an organization recruits through modern methods, it opens the organization up to a larger pool of applicants, which increases its chance of finding the right

person for the job. Current recruitment methods provide an opportunity for a fresh outlook on the

industry that a company may need to stay competitive. Bringing in fresh talent from the outside can help motivate the current employees to

produce and achieve more in hopes of obtaining the next promotional opportunity. Looking outside the organization also allows a company to target the key players

that may make its competition successful. Hiring a candidate with a proven track

record for the competition allows the company to get an insider's view as to what

the competition is doing to be successful. This gives the organization a chance to stay

a step ahead of the competition. Hiring through current methods opens up many opportunities to find experienced

and highly-qualified and skilled candidates who will help a company meet its diversity requirements.

Disadvantages of Current Methods of recruitment

It can take longer and cost more than hiring from within the organization.

It can also damage employee morale because current employees may feel this lessens their chances for promotion. When employee morale decreases, productivity

can also decrease. It also takes more time to train an external candidate on the systems the

organization uses; therefore, taking the candidate a little longer to get up and running.

It can be difficult to tell by a candidate's information whether or not he or she will fit

in with the company and its employees. While a new employee may bring fresh

outlooks and ideas, this can be considered a disadvantage, because these ideas may produce conflict with current employees.

Selection Process

Of the selection process importance is given to Interviews as they as 90% the determinants of which candidate will receive the Job.

Types of Interviews

Structured Interviews:

Fixed format interview in which all questions are prepared beforehand and are put in the

same order to each interviewee. Although this style lacks the free flow of a friendly

conversation (as in an unstructured Interview) it provides the precision and reliability

required in certain situations. Also called directive interview.

Open Ended Interviews:

An open-ended interview is a way of gathering information from people. An interviewer

asks questions of a participant, who then answers those questions. The interview is

considered open-ended because even though the questions can be scripted, the interviewer

usually doesn't know what the contents of the response will be. These interviews may have

some questions to gather basic factual data on participants such as age and gender, but

usually they focus more on the participant's thoughts, feelings, experiences, knowledge,

skills, ideas and preferences.

Types

Open-ended interviews are separated into three groups based on how structured they are.

The first type, informal, is the least restrictive. The interviewer doesn't prepare any

questions in advance, instead asking questions spontaneously. Subsequently, no two

informal interviews are alike. The second type, interview guide, is semi-restrictive. The

interviewer uses a general outline of issues or questions, but can use other questions

generated spontaneously or go to other topics based on the responses of the participant.

JOB OFFER

Interview with Top Level of Management

Interview with executive level of management

Written Test

Preliminary Interview with HR Manager

Screening the Job Applicants

The third type, structured, is the most restrictive. The interviewer can only use the exact

same questions on specific topics for each interview, and those questions are carefully

worded to avoid ambiguity or specific undesired connotations.

Execution of Open ended interviews

Interviewers have several choices about how to execute an open-ended interview. If it isn't

practical for the interviewer to travel to the participant, or if scheduling is troublesome,

interviewers usually ask their questions via mail, email or phone, as well as text and video

chat. However, many open-ended interviews are one-on-one events in which the

interviewer and participant meet in the same room.

Advantages

One advantage of an open-ended interview is that, in addition to fulfilling the original

interview objective, the provided complete explanations can lead interviewers, researchers

and other businesspeople in new directions, letting them see perspectives and

opportunities they didn't consider before. Participants also can clarify what they mean, with

motivations often revealed.

Disadvantages

Open-ended interviews generally don't provide data that are quantifiable. This doesn't

mean the data are useless; it just means that the interviews aren't particularly helpful in

instances where concrete statistics are required. Also, because participants can answer

however they like for most questions, it is difficult to constrain the time of the interview.

Interviewers cannot guarantee that they will finish in the time allotted for execution.

Depending on how the interviewer executes the interview, the interviewer may not be able

to gather valuable information from the body language of the participant. Lastly, open-

ended interviews are not practical when the interviewer needs data from a large number of

participants.

Applications

Structured open-ended interviews are best applied to research where the interviewer wants

the most control over result. Most interviews fall into the interview guide classification and

can be applied in contexts such as marketing, journalism and employee selection. Informal

interviews may be useful for getting a general sense of what a person is like or allowing the

participant to be expressive, such as with psychology.

Behavioral interview:

In a behavioral interview, the interviewer will ask you questions based on common

situations of the job you are applying for. The logic behind the behavioral interview is that

your future performance will be based on a past performance of a similar situation. You

should expect questions that inquire about what you did when you were in XXX situation

and how did you dealt with it. In a behavioral interview, the interviewer wants to see how

you deal with certain problems and what you do to solve them.

Behavioral interviewing is a relatively new, but widely used mode of job interviewing. The

behavioral interview technique is used by employers to evaluate a candidate’s experiences

and behaviors in order to determine their potential for success. This approach is based on

the belief that past performance is the best predictor of future behavior. In fact, behavioral

interviewing is said to be 55 percent predictive of future on-the-job behavior, while

traditional interviewing is only 10 percent predictive. The interviewer identifies desired skills

and behaviors, and then structures open-ended questions and statements to elicit detailed

responses. A rating system is developed and selected criteria are evaluated during the

interview. Even if you don’t have a great deal of work experience, companies expect you to

be able to relate past experiences – from undergraduate or graduate school, campus

activities, volunteer work, membership in an organization, etc. – to the job for which you

are interviewing.

BEHAVIORAL Vs. TRADITIONAL INTERVIEWING

Behavioral-based interviewing provides a more objective set of facts to make employment

decisions than other interviewing methods. Traditional interview questions ask you general

questions such as “Tell me about yourself.” The process of behavioral interviewing is much

more probing and works very differently.

In a traditional job-interview, you can usually get away with telling the interviewer what he

or she wants to hear. Even if you are asked situational questions that start out “How would

you handle XYZ situation?” you have minimal accountability because the interviewer can’t

really predict if you would react the way you said you would if that particular situation ever

arose. In a behavioral interview, however, it’s much more difficult to give responses that are

untrue to your character. When you start to tell a behavioral story, the behavioral

interviewer typically will pick it apart to try to get at the specific behavior(s). The interviewer

will probe further for more depth or detail such as “What were you thinking at that point?”

or “Tell me more about your meeting with that person,” or “Lead me through your decision

process.” If you’ve told a story that’s anything but totally honest, your response will not

hold up through the barrage of probing questions.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN A BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEW

Behavioral-based interview questions generally start with any one of the following

phrases:

Tell me about a time when you…

Describe a circumstance when you were faced with a problem related to… Think about an instance in which you…

Tell me how you approached a situation where… When your interview is behavioral-based, you should expect a structured interview with set

questions, as opposed to a conversational style of interviewing. The interviewer is probably

evaluating you against a profile of desired behaviors considered necessary for success. You

will oftentimes receive follow-up questions that probe for more details and attempt to

evaluate the consistency of your answers. Many of the questions will have multiple parts,

and the interviewer will generally take notes during your answers.

AREAS OF EVALUATION:

Some of the most common behavioral questions evaluate such attributes as:

Integrity

Leadership

Initiative

Communication Skills

Problem Solving Skills

Interpersonal Skills

Adaptability

Here is one list of sample behavioral-based interview questions:

Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way.

Describe a time when you were faced with a stressful situation that demonstrated your coping skills.

Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem.

Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and were able to meet or achieve it.

Tell me about a time when you had to use your presentation skills to influence someone's opinion.

Give me a specific example of a time when you had to conform to a policy with

which you did not agree. Please discuss an important written document you were required to complete.

Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.

Tell me about a time when you had too many things to do and you were required to prioritize your tasks.

Give me an example of a time when you had to make a split second decision.

What is your typical way of dealing with conflict? Give me an example. Tell me about a time you were able to successfully deal with another person even

when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa).

Tell me about a difficult decision you've made in the last year.

Normal interviews (also called unstructured interviews) are essentially a

conversation where the interviewers ask a few questions that are relevant to what they are

looking for but without any specific aim in mind other than getting an overall impression of

you as an individual. Questions are fairly random and can sometimes be quite open. For

example, a question such as "What can you offer our company?" is meant to gather general

information about you but does not test any specific skill or competency. In an unstructured

interview, the candidate is judged on the general impression that he/she leaves; the process

is therefore likely to be more subjective.

Competency-based interviews (also called structured or behavioural

interviews) are more systematic, with each question targetting a specific skill or

competency. Candidates are asked questions relating to their behaviour in specific

circumstances, which they then need to back up with concrete examples. The interviewers

will then dig further into the examples by asking for specific explanations about the

candidate's behaviour or skills.

Skills and competencies tested by competency-based interviews

The list of skills and competencies that can be tested varies depending on the post that you

are applying for. For example, for a Personal Assistant post, skills and competencies would

include communication skills; ability to organise and prioritise; and ability to work under

pressure. For a senior manager, skills and competencies may include an ability to influence

and negotiate; an ability to cope with stress and pressure; an ability to lead; and the

capacity to take calculated risks.

A non-exhaustive list of the more common skills and competencies that you may be asked

to demonstrate:

Skills and competencies for competency-based interviews

Adaptability

Compliance

Communication

Conflict management

Creativity and Innovation

Decisiveness

Delegation

External awareness

Flexibility

Independence

Influencing

Integrity

Leadership

Leveraging diversity

Organisational

awareness

Resilience and tenacity

Risk taking

Sensitivity to others

Team work

Examples of competency-based interview questions asked during interviews

Although most questions tend to ask for examples of situations where you have

demonstrated specific skills, they can appear in different formats. Examples include:

How do you ensure that you maintain good working relationships with your senior

colleagues?

Give us an example of a situation where you had to deal with a conflict with an internal or external client.

How do you influence people in situations where there are conflicting agendas?

Tell us about a situation where you made a decision and then changed your mind.

In many cases, the interviewers will start with a general questions, which they will then

follow up with a more specific example-based questions. So, for example:

How do you manage upwards?

Give us an example of a situation where you had a fundamental disagreement with one of your superiors.

The key in answering all questions is that you are required to "demonstrate" that you have

the right skills by using examples based on your prior experience, and not just talk about the

topic in a theoretical and impersonal manner.

Marking of competency-based interview questions

Before the interview, the interviewers will have determined which type of answers would

score positive points and which types of answers would count against the candidates. For

example, for questions such as "Describe a time when you had to deal with pressure", the

positive and negative indicators may be as follows:

Positive indicators Negative indicators

Demonstrates a positive approach towards the problem.

Considers the wider need of the

situation

Recognises his own limitations

Is able to compromise

Is willing to seek help when necessary

Uses effective strategies to deal with

pressure/stress

Perceives challenges as problems

Attempts unsuccessfully to deal with the situation alone

Used inappropriate strategies to deal with pressure/stress

In some cases, negative indicators are divided into two further sections: minor negative

indicators, i.e. those which are negative but which don’t matter so much; and decisive

negative indicators i.e. those for which they won’t forgive you e.g. not asking for help when

needed.

Marks are then allocated depending on the extent to which the candidate's answer matches

those negative and positive indicators. Here is an example of a marking schedule for the

table above:

0

No evidence

No evidence reported

1 Poor Little evidence of positive indicators.

Mostly negative indicators, many decisive

2 Areas for concern Limited number of positive indicators. Many negative indicators, one or more decisive.

3 Satisfactory Satisfactory display of positive indicators. Some negative indicators but none decisive.

4 Good to excellent Strong display of positive indicators

If the interviewers feel that there are areas that you have failed to address, they may help

you along by probing appropriately. For example, in answering the question above “Describe

an example of a time when you had to deal with pressure”, if you focussed on how you dealt

with the practical angle of the problem but you forgot to discuss how you managed your

stress during and after the event, the interviewers may prompt you with a further question

such as “How did you handle the stress at the time?”. This would give you an opportunity to

present a full picture of your behaviour. This is where the marking can become subjective.

Indeed, if an interviewer likes you, he may be more tempted to prompt you and push you

along than if he has bad vibes about you.

TATA Consultancy Services

Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) is an Indian multinational information technology

(IT) service, consulting and business solutions company headquartered

in Mumbai, Maharashtra. TCS operates in 46 countries. TCS is now placed among the ‘Big 4’

most valuable IT services brands worldwide. In 2013, TCS is ranked 40th overall in

the Forbes World's Most Innovative Companies ranking, making it both the highest-ranked

IT services company and the top Indian company.

TCS is one of the largest private sector employers in India, and the second-largest employer

among listed Indian companies.

TCS had a total of 276,196 employees as of March 2013, of which 31% were women. In the

fiscal year 2012-13, TCS recruited a total of 69,728 new staff, of whom 59,276 were based in

India and 10,452 were based in the rest of the world. In the same period, the rate of

attrition was 10.6%. The average age of a TCS employee is 28 years

Recruitment Process at TCS

JOB OFFER

Checking Referrances

Interview with Top Level of Mnangement

Interview with Executive Level of Management

Technical Test

Preliminary Interview with HR

Written test( Aptitude test)

Screening the Job Applicants

Groupon India ( www.groupon.co.in)

Launched in 2008 and publicly listed on the NYSE in 2011, Groupon.com is the world’s best

known brand for Daily Deals, with a presence in over 48 countries and more than 250

million subscribers! Forbes Magazine has called them “the Fastest Growing Company Ever!”

In India, they started our journey in October 2011. Today they are India’s biggest and best

Deal Site, with 245 employees spread across 10 cities in the country. They are expanding

and hope to hire 200 more employees in 2015. They are looking for more women

employees trying to achieve a goal of 30% employees as women.

Recruitment Process of Groupon India

JOB OFFER

Interview with Top Level of Management

Interview with executive level of management

Written Test (aptitude + psychometric + technical)

Preliminary Interview with HR Manager (Telephonic round)

Screening the Job Applicants

Fortis Healthcare Limited

Fortis Healthcare Limited is a leading integrated healthcare delivery service provider in

India. The healthcare verticals of the company primarily comprise hospitals, diagnostics and day care speciality facilities.

Currently, the company operates its healthcare delivery services in India, Singapore, Dubai,

Mauritius and Sri Lanka with 55 healthcare facilities (including projects under development), approximately 10,000 potential beds and 270 diagnostic centres.

It has over 10,000 employees and has recently taken concrete steps were taken towards

transforming and instituting best-in class practices. Several important initiatives that were launched in 2012-13 came to fruition in 2014. It is also running institutionalised training and

development programmes for both medical and non-medical staff as there is a shortage of employees in the healthcare sector.

Recruitment and selection Process at Fortis Healthcare Limited

Steps 4 and 5 elaborated

Step7-Induction

Step6-Final Selection & Appointment Letter

Step5-Employment Interview

Step4-Employment Tests

Step3-Screening of Applications

Step2-Receiving Applications

Step 1-Preliminary Interview

Round 5: HR Round

Round 4: Personal Interaction Round (PIR)

Round 3: Group Discussion

Round 2:Test for Specific Skill Sets (Process Specific)

Round 1: Written test-General Aptitude Test