Recruitment & selection ch 8 & 9

Attracting
Applicants
CHAPTER 8
By Air Cdre (R ) Anwar Saeed

Marketing employment
The Classic approach to the marketing of products is
concerned with:
 Research
 Planning
 Positioning
 Supporting
The development of an employment marketing strategy can
benefit from adopting the same approach.

Market research
Product market research is concerned with identifying consumer
needs, and covers five main types of research:
 Market research – who buys in what quantity?
 Product research – what is right and wrong with the products of
the company?
 Marketing method research – are we communicating and
distributing effectively?
 Motivational research – why do people buy the products they do
and what do they feel about them?
 Attitude surveys – customers attitudes to the products and the
companies that make them.
The market is concerned with potential source of labor, the types of
people who ‘buy in’ to the company.

Market research
The product is concerned with the jobs on offer, their nature, their
suitability and attractiveness to people. It is concerned with the good
and bad points of working for the organization and the particular type
of work that is being undertaken.
The same way that marketers would pay attention to the marketing
method research to check that the method of communication, the
message, and the reach are effective, so too do recruiters need to be
concerned that cost-effective channels are being used to get the
message across.
It is interesting that in ‘marketing’ employment, greater attention seems
to be paid to winning minds rather than hearts and a greater
emphasis on logic than feelings.
Attitude surveys present an interesting perspective for the recruiter. It is
usual to find industrial relations staff taking responsibility for
employee attitude surveys – or perhaps pay designers or
organization development staff.

Planning
Formulate overall direction and goal
In product terms this is identifying the business that a company is in and the
market in which it seeks to operate. In employment marketing terms this
stage should be identifying the labor market in which the organization is
going to compete
Identifying the external opportunities
A parallel in employment marketing is to consider that potential for sources of
labor in the same way that product marketers would look at the potential for
selling their product. Using the seller’s perspective it is identifying which
groups of people are likely to want to buy into employment with the company
Identifying the external threats
In product marketing this is to identify the threats, whether from competition,
demand or other social factors. In the employment marketing perspective
this is concerned with identifying other recruiters of, and therefore,
competitors for, external labor. This may seem and obvious point, but all too
often organization compare

Planning
Identifying the external threats
themselves with others pursuing the same nature of business when in
reality they may be geographically remote and not true competitors
for labor whereas other quite similar organizations in the locality
may be strongly competing for the same labor.
Produce the marketing objectives and strategy
this is a key aspect in product marketing, but in employment marketing
terms it is an aspect which is often overlooked. All too often
recruiters are attempting to use clever advertizing techniques or
throw additional money at recruiting people once in ‘the eye of the
storm’ rather than looking ahead to identify the oncoming problem
and putting strategies in place to prevent the problem or minimize
the adverse consequences. This, of course, will be more critical for
in-house recruiters with long-term perspectives, than external
consultants who may be undertaking a one-off assignment.

Planning
Programming the marketing mix to support the product
For the ‘product elements’ we can read the nature and scope of
roles and the structure of the organization.
For the ‘pricing elements’ we can read levels of salary and reward.
This is usually the domain of the compensation and benefits
people within the organization and may be the product of
collective bargaining arrangements.
The ‘promotion elements’ cover aspects such as advertising, public
relation, direct and indirect promotion.

Positioning
In product marketing terms, positioning is concerned with
setting the image of the product and identifying the target
consumer audience. It is, of course, concerned with the
product itself and the stage in the life cycle of the
product. Consumer products are seen as having life
cycles through which they progress:
 Introduction
 Growth
 Maturity
 Decline
 Phase out

Positioning
In employment terms this is an unusual aspect since for many years
recruiters have been focused on bringing in people for long-term
contracts with the organization, very often for life-time careers. In
recent years the nature of employment has changed dramatically
and the paradigms have shifted significantly. It is now the case in
many organizations that there may be a group of core employees
with permanent ‘career’ prospects, and other groups of
peripheral employees, some of whom will be on short-term
contracts, others on part-time, freelance or contract
arrangements.
In the organization there may be some roles where there is a
shortage of skills and a perceived long-term growth, perhaps in
technology or other aspects. In other parts of the organization
there may be a phasing out of certain roles as technology, new
developments or market changes affect the demand for such
labor. It is naïve to believe that labor is so flexible that people
can be shifted from the phase-out jobs into the growth jobs.

Supporting
In-house promotion
Many organization are involved in providing a product or a service
to members of the public, or perhaps among the group in their
target audience or labor market.
This is nothing new, for many years the local shop has advertised
for staff by simply putting a sign in its window.
Direct mail
The interest in direct mail to advertise employment is likely to be
more cordial than most direct mail aimed at stimulating a
purchase. The quality of focus offered by direct mail is
unparalleled. It is possible to obtain information on names and
addresses categorized in various ways, whether it be social,
economic, consumer habits, political persuasion, or financial
standing etc. Good market research will provide information on
the target audience for employment which can be marched very
precisely to the direct mail campaign. This can be undertaken
either in-house by buying-in appropriate mail lists, or by
specialist organization that can arrange the appropriate level of
service

Supporting
Advertising
Advertising tends to be the most popular communication channel for
recruiters. It can take a number of forms, including:
 Static: newspaper, magazine or periodical advertising and job
centers
 Live: radio, cinema and television advertising
 Interactive: internet advertising, recruitment fairs or events.

Advertising agencies
It is possible ‘to get it alone’ with the employment marketing
strategy, or with any other element related to the process of
attracting candidates. It is particularly tempting, where a low level
of local recruitment is being undertaken, to draft and place
advertisements directly. The use of an advertising agency may
seem an extravagance but is an area in which any time and
money will be well invested.

Advantages of Advertising agencies:
 High return on investment
 Reinforce a proper image of the organization.
 Clarify the candidates requirements, the opportunities
the role affords, and the current state of organization.
 Provide clear information to the applicants.
 Fair utilization of client’s advertising budget.
 Use cost effective media.
 Well drafted and attractive advertisement leads to high
response.

Disadvantages of Advertising agencies :
 Need of past records of advertising
assignments.
 To develop strategy, previous work is required.
 Creative advertisements are less important than
suitability.
 Check on capabilities of agency is mandatory.

Screening
The main techniques for screening are:
 Application forms and CVs
 Telephone screening
 Biodata.

Application forms and curricula vitae
A simple rating system, perhaps four-scale, should be used which will,
for example, identify whether the application:
 Shows no evidence of the competency
 Shows some evidence of the competency
 Shows full evidence of the competency
 Shows evidence of the competency displayed at higher levels than
this role.
Rating Application through the Weighted Competencies Method
Competency Weight Rating Score
Technical Knowledge 40 3 120
Business Knowledge 30 4 120
Results 20 4 80
People experience 10 2 20
TOTAL 340

Job questionnaires
It has been shown that information given to applicants is not always
read. In one case study of graduate recruits it was found that the
company brochure (rather glossy and expensive) was not read by
applicants until the night before their interview as a means of
‘revision’. It did not influence their decision to submit or withhold
their application for employment. It was therefore an unnecessary
cost for the organization, not simply in terms of the cost of the
brochure itself but also of the additional cost of postage and
administration. Conversely, job questionnaires have been shown to
be influential on people in forming their decision to submit or
withhold their application.
Telephone Screening
One of the recent advances in screening has been the use of
telephone screening. This is particularly suitable for those roles
which will involve telephone contact, such as help line positions etc.
It works through advertising the positions and inviting applicants to
telephone a certain number, perhaps during a certain time, but all
within a defined period of perhaps days or weeks.

Biodata
Biodata is a technique that is rarely used in selection, yet it does well
on all measures of effectiveness. Biodata is an abbreviation of
‘biographical data’ and is the process by which the story of the
people’s lives will hold keys to their future. It uses the simple
assumption that past actions, behaviors, etc will be the best
predictor of future behaviors, patterns, etc. Biodata as a concept is
no new, nor is it particularly unfamiliar out-side of the selection
process.
In modern Biodata methods there are two main approaches:
 Weighted application blanks (WAB)
 Rational biodata.
Designing Biodata
The design of biodata using weighted application blanks is as follows.
The first stage is to develop a set of questions to be put to
applicants with the application form. These are open-ended
questions which may, for example, have one question asking ‘what
are your interests or hobbies’?

Designing Biodata
The next stage is to turn the open questions into
closed questions and create a modified form which
would now ask the question ‘please indicate which
hobbies you have: gardening, swimming etc’. It is, of
course, essential in order to get to the closed
questions, that the open question form should have
encompassed a whole raft of issues of every
conceivable biographical kind.

Designing Biodata
The conditions for successful use of biodata set out by Gunter,
Furnham and Drakely are”
 The criteria for job success or acceptability must be defined
clearly.
 The targets jobs should be relatively homogeneous.
 The likely candidates for the job should be of broadly similar age
and background.
 Researchers should have access to large development and
cross-validation samples.
 If part of an application blank (form), a biodata must be in a
format acceptable to candidates.
 People must be aware of what constitutes success in using
biodata.

ADVANTAGES &
DISADVANTAGE
S OF SCREENING
TECHNIQUES:

1. APPLICATION FORMS & CVs:
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Speedier Inflate the strong points of candidates
and omit any weakness.
Less costly Send same copy of CV to different
organizations.
Investigative tool Maligned and misused recruitment
tool.
Easier to assess
Reference document
Used in preparation of interviews
Focus on acquired and adapting
competencies
Demonstrate the ability of candidates
to marshal their thoughts & put
together a clear piece of
communication.

2.TELEPHONE SCREENING:
Suitable for call helpline positions,
etc.
Costly
Speedy process Need sufficient operators on duty.
Building personal bonds Need dedicated telephone lines.
Cost savings in avoidance of
Limited to executive search
postage and printing.
consultants.
People have easy access to
telephones.
Avoid discrimination.

3. BIODATA:
Predictor of success Complex scoring process
Sits as a competitor to other techniques. Danger of prejudice
Sits as a competitor to other techniques. Danger of prejudice
Provides a rationale for the process. Shelf life
Can be used alone, eliminating application
forms, tests, interviews, etc.
Development of biodata is slow and
expensive process.
More effective as well as more objective
than interview.
People may feel uncomfortable with
unexplained factors.
Means of reducing applications to a
manageable number.
Needs to be revised after every few years
and amended.
Used as an alternative to application
forms.
Predictor of various measures including
performance, absenteeism, job tenure,
cultural fit, work satisfaction, and honesty.

Recruitment & selection ch 8 & 9

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