One of the most important factors in maintaining a thriving business or industry, whether service oriented, manufacturing, health care, or other enterprise is finding and keeping a skilled, reliable, and steady workforce. Unfortunately, this is also one of the most difficult factors. Employee recruitment and selection can have either a positive or a negative impact on the organizations it serves.
In reviewing a few of the current practices regarding employee recruitment and selection, many areas of the best and worst practices have been studied and reported upon. One example of this type of research is in relation to people who are beginning a job search. For those who do not have time constraints for their job search, such as a gainfully and relatively satisfied business person looking to move up on the corporate ladder, von Walter, Wentzel, Tomczak (2012) reported that “applicant-employee fit is an abstract, high-level attribute that exerts a greater influence on an individual’s employer attraction and intentions when that individual holds a distant time perspective relative to a near time perspective” (122-23). This is as opposed to an individual who is seeking employment after the loss of another job, after graduating from college, or after determining that the salary being paid is not covering the costs of living for the employee and has a more urgent, or a near time perspective to exert influence on a potential employer. These researchers also indicated that potential employees often make decisions about a potential employer based not on the employers attributes, but rather on the perception of the potential employee of the company’s current workers (2012). Cumulatively, their research shows that potential employees do, in fact, take into consideration more factors that salary, schedule, and job responsibilities.
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Other researchers believe that salary is the most important factor when employees are seeking career opportunities. The Grand Rapids Business Journal (2014) reported last month that while the American economic recession is over and the economy is once again growing, employee salaries are not growing along with it. They also reported that “expert after expert is sounding a warning bell that job switching will be the norm in 2015 as employees with certain skill sets will be in demand as fuel for that projected growth” (2014). In particular, they mentioned, computer and health care workers will be in demand. This is in response to the Baby Boomers inhabiting senior level positions.
Finally, employee recruitment and selection needs to address the eventual retirement of the salary-motivated Baby Boomers and their replacement with group-cultured Gen Y workers, or millineals as some call them. This particular group of workers comes with its own needs and offerings. They also come with recruitment challenges that not all companies can afford or are willing to adjust to. “To successfully recruit them, employers must be willing to offer more than just a competitive salary. For most millennials, office environment and culture are as important as pay and benefits. Workspace, common areas and amenities are of great concern to this group. Furthermore, they have high expectations when it comes to technology” (Cornelison, 2014, n.p.).
Because of the importance of employee recruitment and selection in the bottom line of any company or industry, best practices are needed to ensure that the most favorable candidates enter a company’s workforce. This can be a difficult process. Factors such as how much time an employee has to make a decision regarding new employment, how much salary will be available, and what other amenities and environments will be available are all aspects of the recruitment and selection process that need to be understood and considered. The employers served by those responsible for recruiting and selecting only the best employees are best attended when these and other considerations are accounted for in the hiring process.
- Cornelison, T. (2014). Workplaces designed for Gen Y. Enterprise/Salt Lake City, 44(19), F1.
- Von Walter, B., Wentzel, D., & Tomczak, T. (2012). The effect of applicant-employee fit and temporal construal on employer attraction and pursuit intentions. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 85(1), 116-135. doi:10.1348/2044-8325.002006
- You want to keep them? Pay them. (2014). Grand Rapids Business Journal, 32(51), 19.
