Human resource recruitment and selection is an essential aspect of an organization. Managers are faced with the challenge of finding the most suitable employees to steer the organization to success. With increased competition for the best available skilled personnel in the market and the limited resources in an organization, recruitment and selection have to be done in a professional to obtain the most efficient and qualified workers. Most importantly, the staff involved in recruitment need to have the right skills and qualities for the task. Getting the right employees from the recruitment and selection process is key to any organization's future success. However, managers today are faced with a myriad of challenges in the recruitment process.
Challenges Related to Recruitment and Selection of Human Resources
Inadequate resources for the recruitment process is one of the significant challenges that human resource professionals have to deal with. The limited resources allocated to some HR departments for the recruitment process results in compromised results. Traditional recruitment methods like placing advertisements on notice boards are cheap but ineffective in a modern context. To attract a large pool of potential employees, modern methods like internet advertisements in recruitment spots are preferred. Though expensive, these contemporary methods often result in employment of better-qualified staff as compared to traditional methods. However, the limited budget of some HR Departments forces them to apply recruitment methods that are budget friendly often resulting in recruitment of staff that is not the most desired by the organization.
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Another challenge faced by recruitment professionals is the inability to find employees that are most suited to the organization's culture. New employees should be able to integrate into the operation of the organization quickly. The organization's culture and ethics have to be learned in the minimum time possible. Gaining an understanding of the processes and daily running of the organization is critical in avoiding bottlenecks that result from getting new employees. However, if the recruits fail to integrate into the company, the HR department is forced to restart the recruiting process. The restarting process obviously time consuming and expensive. External influence and pressure is also a major problem during the recruitment process. Factors like government policies may force human resource managers to apply recruitment methods that are not well suited for the organization. For example, the law may require agencies to employ a certain percentage of youths. For conformity, recruitment professionals will be forced employ advertisement methods that target young people. Such regulations will also have a bearing on the selection process. Additionally, outside influence like prevailing remuneration rates dramatically affects the recruitment process. Organizations that are known to provide wages that are below the average market value hardly attract applications from the most qualified potential employees. As a result, workers that are employed are not the most skilled in the market.
The skills and experience of potential employees available for selection possess a significant challenge for human resource professionals (Mayhew, 2017). In some cases, the pool of applicants may not have the requisite skills required by the organization. Due to time constraints and costs involved in the recruitment and selection process, restarting the process may not be an option. Thus, the organization is forced to select from the available applicants. Comparatively, the recruitment process may provide more than the necessary number of qualified applicants thus making the selection process quite challenging. The HR managers have to decide on the applicant that is most suited for the job without bias.
Salary demands and working conditions also provide a challenge for the human resource professionals during the selection process. During interviews, the most qualified candidates may make salary demands that are not in line with the organization's policies. Additionally, working conditions requirements for potential employees may differ with the organization's ideals. As a result, human resource managers have to make decisions that are both for the good of the organizations and enable them to find the best-qualified employees.
Impact of Failing to Address these Challenges
Failure to address the challenges faced by human resource Professionals impacts negatively on the running of the organization. The leading sign of human resource department failures is high employee turnover. Lack of action on the mentioned challenges leads to staff being demotivated and developing a negative attitude. The adverse effects are felt by both the human resource department professionals and hospital management. Negative attitude causes lack of motivation, and eventually employees leaving their job. Working conditions may also be compromised leading to accidents.
A mismatch between the demand and supply for employees will also occur if the challenges are not addressed. Human resource managers have to ensure that the demand and supply for employees within an organization is kept at equilibrium. If this function is not met, the hospital management will be strained and ineffective. Additionally, HR department employees will develop a lackadaisical attitude because of their demands not being met. Communication with the hospital managers also becomes affected in the process. The overall result is a breakdown in hospital functions. Challenges like limited financial allocation can result in frustration and HR employees leaving work. The poor financial distribution also results in recruitment of workers with inadequate skills.
Strategic and Tactical Approaches to Address the Challenges
Resource allocation as a challenge for the human resource professionals can be effectively addressed without sourcing for additional resources. Identifying the platforms where the best-qualified professionals look for jobs is essential in addressing this challenge. Social media platforms like LinkedIn provide an opportunity for HR managers to identify potential employees (Shrivastava, 2015). At no additional cost, best-qualified employees can be identified and recruited. The challenge of finding employees that are best suited for the organization's culture is best addressed by providing a detailed description of the organization's missions and objectives in the job description. This potential way employees will be able to understand whatever is expected of them if they are hired. External interference as a challenge is dealt with by sealing all possible loopholes that can compromise the recruitment process. In cases where it is impossible for the HR professionals to maneuver around the influence, the selection process should plan to ensure the most qualified candidates are hired.
Selection challenges like the inability to find candidates that are most suited for a job are common in HR departments. Even though a recruitment and selection process may be aimed at filling a particular position, managers should be open to the idea of training employees that are hired. A balance between hiring workers that have the requisite skills and hiring people with the potential to acquire the requisite skills is vital for any organization. Providing training for employees can impact positively on the organization because employees may even surpass the expectations of their managers. Salary demands also pose a challenge to HR professionals during the selection process. This difficulty may be dealt with by adjusting the organization's wage structure to match prevailing market rates. The adjustment may also work to the advantage of the organization by motivating existing employees. Unreasonable wage demands during selection process can be countered by providing room for negotiation. HR professionals with good negotiating skills will enable the organization strike a deal that is favorable to both the employee and the organization. External influences like gender balance are best addressed by ensuring a large number of potential employees apply for the job. Hence, the chance of finding a more qualified applicant in a large group is increased.
How information from other industries can inform recruitment and selection in the healthcare industry
The recruitment process applied in the health sector differs slightly from the methods employed in other industries. However, the healthcare industry may borrow certain aspects applied in other sectors like manufacturing and IT. Online tests which are common in the IT industry may be implemented in the healthcare industry to reduce the tediousness of interviews. The manufacturing industry, on the other hand, is famed for the use of aptitude tests. Aptitude tests, when applied in the healthcare industry recruitment process, can be useful in determining the applicant's level of knowledge.
Recruitment Sources
The most common recruitment sources applied in health care are either internal or external. Internal recruitment sources target employees within the organization. External recruitment sources, on the other hand, are for the general public. The human resource department of a healthcare facility may conduct an internal advertisement for vacant positions. The internal advertisement is effective since they make existing employees feel motivated of their hard work and dedication is rewarded. Additionally, applicants may be vetted according to their performance (Chand, 2017). Employees who may be having better qualifications but holding lower positions find an opportunity to nurture their careers. The HR department may also conduct campus interviews to source for employees. Campus interviews are less costly and also provide an opportunity for the organization to find employees with great potential.
Candidate Selection Processes
The two conventional methods used in selecting candidates are interviews and background checks. Interviews involve determining the candidate's grasp of the knowledge and skills relating to his or her field. Face to face interviews is common since they enable the managers to get a clear understanding of the candidate's knowledge and his or her potential. Background checks, on the other hand, set to find the candidates experience so that the managers can be able to determine his or her knowledge and skills. Interviews are more effective than background checks since they are less prone to errors and bias.
Recruitment Plan for Health Care Providers
The objectives of the recruitment plan are to acquire the services of trained and well-skilled professionals in health care. The other objective is to maintain the recruitment cycle of the organization. Finally, the plan aims at maintaining the equilibrium between demand and supply for nursing services at the healthcare facility.
The online recruitment plan for healthcare providers is meant to tap into the skilled workforce of young people who have completed college or those that are changing jobs. Traditional methods such as newspaper advertisements rarely reach these young people. Under this plan, care providers will place advertisements job seeking sites like www.jobs.net. The advertisement will outline the mission and vision of the organization, the minimum requirements for the positions including previous experience on the job. Online tests should also be provided to find the candidates who are most viable to continue with the application process to the end. After filling the relevant forms, uploading their CVs and passing the online test, the application will have been gone through. Applicants will then provide their contacts so that they can be reached by phone if the application is successful. Interviews will then be conducted.
Selection Process
A useful selection process is aimed at finding the best-qualified candidate among those that applied for the job. The process also provides an avenue to test the candidates potential and flaws to determine how well they can handle the job. Candidates whose applications will have been successful will contacted via phone and email. Shortlisting will be done after reviewing resumes and uploaded certificates. A phone interview will then be conducted to narrow the list of applicants. After the phone interview, a final face-to-face interview will be scheduled. The interview will be conducted by a panel of consisting of skilled staff from the relevant areas and HR staff. The face to face interview will test the candidates' knowledge in their field. Their ability to deal with different work situation will be tested. Practical skills of candidates will also be conducted during the interviewing stage. Background checks will then be done to confirm the skills and knowledge of those who are well suited. Finally, successful candidates will be contacted to inform them of the day to report to work.
In conclusion, the challenges that form part of the job of human resource professionals are complex and need strategic planning in dealing with them. If not addressed, these challenged have diverse effects on organizations. Some of these challenges are within the human resource department ability to deal with them while other can only be handled through reduction of their negative effects on organizations. Strategically approaching these challenges is key to human resource Professional's objectives of eliminating their negative effects. The healthcare industry needs to apply effective human resources practices in making their recruitment and selection process effective. Developing effective recruitment plans helps in conducting the process professionally. Selection plans, on the other hand, provide a guide hiring staff that are best qualified for healthcare jobs.
References
Chand, S. (2017). Recruitment: Meaning and sources of recruitment. Yourarticlelibrary.com . Retrieved on 18 December 2017, from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/human-resources/recruitment-meaning-and-sources-of-recruitment-with-diagram/32353.
Mayhew, R. (2017). Problems in Recruitment & Selection. Hearst Newspapers, LLC. Retrieved on 18 December 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/problems-recruitment-selection-61696.html.
Shrivastava, C. (2015). Recruiting challenges HR professionals face and how to overcome them. Linked In . Retrieved on 18 December 2017, from http://strategic and tactical approaches to address the challenges.
