The aim of this essay is to analyse the relation between the increased demand for ‘soft’ skills on recruitment and selection policies. It will firstly evaluate specific methods and then it will discuss the result of these policies on retention and organisation culture. The essay will also investigate the possible implications and the significance of ‘soft’ skills in recruitment and selection in the service sector. It will argue that control plays an important role in the relationship that develops between employees, employers and customers.
The shift towards a service-oriented business environment in the UK has been influenced by several economic, ideological and political changes that took place during the 1980s and the 1990s.
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For this reason, the selection process has begun to use more sophisticated methods in order to increase the validity and reliability of having the best employee for the organization (Marchington and Wilkison, 2005). For example, in terms of validity, organisations are advised to use structured interviews and cognitive ability tests. In terms of reliability, there are three crucial factors: testing being carried out at different times, the use of two interviewers and repeating the test (Newell, 2005).
Nevertheless, these methods cannot predict employees’ turnover. Morrell et al. (2001) discuss about two key concepts: voluntary and involuntary turnover. Voluntary turnover relates to the employee’s decision to leave such as illness or personal reasons. While, involuntary turnover relates to company related problems such as the need to cut costs or to downsize. Even if organisations develop means to identify the characteristics that influence turnover, neither of these two types can be successfully foreseen during the recruitment process. As a result, employers need to secure long term employment since a labour turnover will have a high cost both in terms of recruitment and selection and in terms of training sessions meant to enhance the employees’ soft skills. (Beardwell and Claydon, 2010).
Even
High employee turnover, where workers frequently leave and must be replaced, leads to increased spending on recruitment and training and can indicate management problems. Employees often have good reasons for moving on but if too many are leaving an organisation, can be very disruptive.
This test is used eliminates candidates potential to use mental processes to solve work-related problems. Validity test is a general cognitive test that is good predictors if the candidate is able to perform the job; however, more complex jobs the better test results the tester will have. This test has demonstrated to produce many valid outcomes such as performance and successful training as well as predict job performance for complex jobs. One of the disadvantages to this type of test is that it is time consuming to develop if not purchased off of the
Assessment of the content validity of various proposed selection techniques by determining how well they match the general requirements of the job
For the most part, attracting and retaining employees in today’s market is one of the biggest challenges that are faced by Human Resources. In today’s society, retaining employees is rather difficult as various employees are known to jump from job to job, almost always in search for more benefits or for their personal dream. Whatever the reason be, high turnover rates can be very expensive to employers as training and hiring one employee and then training and hiring a new employee requires time and money. According to Chron.com, it has been found that “employee replacement costs can reach as high as 50 to 60 percent of an employee’s annual salary.” As this is a one-time transaction, employees that are retained only “charge” the company once and so it is allowing more work for the dollar when the employee stays with the company for a longer time period. Companies that have high turn-over rates spend more money on employees which affects the bottom line of the company, this determines the state on how fast or a matter of if the company will use its money to expand.
There are programs that exist in order to strengthen soft skills or simply make a connections between skills and career choices. Jean Adams discusses how to run these programs in her article “Practical Advice for Developing, Designing and Delivering Effective Soft Skills Programs.” She gives specific advice stating, “be sure to select appropriate systems and resources that give learners choices, empower them to apply their learning in appropriate contexts, and provide adequate personal support along the way(Adams).” It is not about teaching but allowing students to apply what they have learned to a real world scenarios. Soft skills program contribute to the closing the soft skills gap by focusing on the success of students through special
During the interview process, many candidates feel pressured to only focus on their hard skills. While it’s important to highlight these skills, it’s even more impressive when you can explain to the interviewer your soft skills and strengths that relate to the position.
The advantages of relying on tests or assessments to select the best job candidate is highly dependent of whether or not the assessment measures the most influential business outcomes for the company doing the hiring. It is important to remember that evaluating candidates is not the primary goal when using assessments. Improving performance outcomes of employees is the ultimate goal of choosing and using the most effective assessment. Companies are in business to increase their bottom line. Learning about their potential employees and
1. Assessment centers * They are far more accurate than a standard recruitment process as they allow a broader range of selection methods to be used during the process. * They enable interviewers to assess existing performance as well as predict future job performance. * They give the opportunity to assess and differentiate between candidates who seem very similar in quality on paper. * They give the candidates a better insight into the role as they are tested on exercises typical for the role they have applied for. * They help employers build an employer brand. Candidates who attend assessment centres which genuinely reflect the job and the organisation are often impressed by that company, even if they are rejected. * The cost of an assessment centre is usually cheaper compared with the
All over the globe retaining employees is a most critical factor for the organisations. High employee turnover is more common in private sector as compared to public. In construction industry, to reduce employee turnover and to improve the productivity of an organisation, organisations have to be aware of the reasons why an employees quit the organisation?. Employee turnover can be explained as the expenses, in term of money, time, and quality of work, that an organisation bear while replacing an employee. If an organisation fails to satisfy the needs of its employees then it is obvious that the employees will look forward to fulfill their necessities. This chapter discuss the reasons why employees quit their jobs.
Workforce turnover is a complex and important issue amongst today's organisations. It is perhaps one of the most often cited cause of increased cost and decreased productivity. No wonder people management has become an important frontier to extract and create more value from company assets. On comprehending the articles, it has become evident that organisations have moved beyond the traditional approach of only investing in core business activities, to invest in employee retention strategies. Many organisations, for example St. George Bank
Employee retention has always been an important focus for human resource managers. Once a company has invested time and money to recruit and train a good employee, it is in their own best interest to retain that employee, to further develop and motivate him so that he continues to provide value to the organization. But, employers must also recognize and tend to what is in the best interest of their employees, if they intend to keep them. When a company overlooks the needs of its employees and focuses only on the needs of the organization, turnover often results. Excessive turnover in an organization is a prime indicator that something is not right in the employee environment. We will look at
Selecting the right employee to fill a position is one of the most challenging decision making processes a company has to make. The ultimate goal of employee selection is to hire the candidate who is most compatible not only with the organization but for the position that they are trying to fill. In order for the candidate to be successful in a particular position, their talents and personal goals must be taken into consideration and objectives need to be utilized in order to retain qualified individuals. The most common forms of selection methods are resumes and applications but testing, interviews, reference checks, honesty tests, medical exam and drug
Employee retention has always been an important focus for human resource managers. Once a company has invested time and money to recruit and train a good employee, it is in their own best interest to retain that employee, to further develop and motivate him so that he continues to provide value to the organization. But, employers must also recognize and tend to what is in the best interest of their employees, if they intend to keep them. When a company overlooks the needs of its employees and focuses only on the needs of the organization, turnover often results. Excessive turnover in an organization is a prime indicator that something is not right in the employee environment. We will look at
Employee turnover creates a significant economic impact when critical employees, especially given the knowledge that is lost with the employee’s departure (Ramlall, 2004). It can further be concluded that employees who remain with the company for longer periods of time contributes to the overall goal of the company and becomes an integral part of the team.
Many organizations depend only on the result of the test without taking the reliability and validity into considerations, which that might lead to in hiring the wrong people. What is the difference between reliability and validity? “Reliability is the consistency and the stability of a selection measurement and validity is the degree to which a measure predicts on-the-job performance” (Green, 2003). For instance, the consistency of a test is made for to measure reliability and what kind of method to use to test the candidate is to measure validity. Since reliability and validity are both important aspects in the selection process, let’s look at several methods that are used in today’s industries.