Recruitment and Information Processing

Data processing is costly. Processing applications and dealing with applicants involves a lot of work. It is no wonder that busy line managers need a recruitment service section to co-ordinate the burden for them.

Processing Applications

We can decide to receive applications for vacancies in a number of ways each with good and bad points.

• completion of a standard application form - likely to have a covering letter
• submitting a curriculum vitae with a covering letter
• on spec. telephone applications leading to invitations to an interview
• on spec. inquiries where applicants turn up at the workplace or to a recruitment centre (job shop) adjacent to it.
• application via an agency - where the candidate may already be on the agency's books
• head-hunting by an agency - candidates may again be on the agency's books
• internal vacancy notification - circulated or put on notice boards across the company. Internal candidates may apply.
• some applications may not seem like applications - no application form will be filled in! If we are recruiting from a network, for a senior management post say, we may not even use an application form. We would merely invite the candidate in to dine with us. We have to persuade them to give up a good job and join our venture. The interview becomes a "mutually beneficial discussion"

In other situations a telephone contact may be the appropriate initial interview e.g. when advertising for a telesales person. Poor applicants can be tested immediately. However for most jobs an initial meeting with the candidate is essential at which spoken, presentational and practical skills can be tested.

The application form as a test

The application form requires ability to fill it in. It is a test of hand-writing, literacy and meticulousness. The content must be composed. Questions may be asked which require an explanatory narrative.

Even for manual work situations the recruiter must know that the candidate has filled out the application form personally and not a third party (their mum or spouse). If another unknown person has completed it - what additional test will the recruiter use to ascertain if the candidate can read and write? Is this a job requirement e.g. for health and safety purposes?

A Recruitment Information System

Processing applications involves data capture, storage, processing (updating, sorting, ranking, evaluating, verifying against reference data such as the job criteria, summarising), outputing results into the next processing stage and communicating results to various system users and back to candidates.

We will be involved in:

• a job file
  creating a job file containing all job information. Copies of some of the contents of be sent to candidates in an applicant's pack. This file will contain the job analysis documents, details of anticipated terms and conditions of employment etc. Copies of job advertisements etc. Information may be stored relating to numbers of applications from different sources and other costs associated with filling the vacancy. We may use such data to evaluate the effectiveness of the recruitment campaign.

• an applicant file and the life history of an applicant
  to store the details of applicants. An applicant may
  • begin as an inquirer
  • make a formal application
  • be short-listed
  • invited for interview
  • withdraw at any stage
  • attend for a test
  • make an expenses claim
  • be paid an expenses claim
  • be accepted for the next stage
  • be rejected
  • be placed on a waiting list
  • made a job offer
  • accept a job offer
  • have agreed terms and conditions of employment
  • start work as an employee at which time their application details become part if their employee record.

• All applicants are "work in progress" whose details need to be up-dated from time to time. We can see the value - in a large firm or recruitment agency from having a computerised recruitment information system. Once the details of a job vacancy are recorded, applicants can be linked to the job. Personal details of applicants are available to be merged with any letters (some of which will be pro forma) that are sent to applicants as they progress through each stage of recruitment. Every transaction that an applicant makes with the system or the system makes with an applicant can be recorded. Usually this will mean merely up-dating the current record.

  From the system databases we can extract summaries of expenses and costs. We can list all applicants by job who are in processing. We store details of all applicants who were entered onto the system.

  We have to read/analyse all applications and compare these against job selection criteria. Recruitment decisions involve discrimination. Some organisations who receive thousands of applicants may use a formula approach to reject candidates. The formula approach will be based on essential job criteria e.g. education and job experience. Only those candidates who satisfy the essential (relevant but high level) requirements of the firm will be invited for interview.

  Nonetheless the basic application details of all candidates will be captured on computer - name, address, job applied for, age, sex, basic qualifications, relevant experience etc. The application forms may themselves be stored as microfiche images. In this way the organisation will be able to look up any applicant - if a claim for discrimination is made - and show that the decision to reject was based upon relevant job information.

Form letters and Mail-merge.

Form letters are needed. These may include:

• acknowledgement of application and we will be in touch (or otherwise)
• invitation to e.g. interview with travel and accommodation details etc
• letters of thanks and rejection with expenses paid
• Letters of hold, "we are interested in you but are seeing those on our primary short-list first".
• letters/questionnaires requesting a reference
• letters of job offer with attachments detailing the terms and conditions of employment including information on company codes of conduct and benefits etc.

Without a computerised system all would need typing and photocopying. Even with a computerised system we still need letter-head paper, an office environment,the recrutiment processing application siftware with its databases and integrated word processing, an administrator, an envelope and stamp, a possible telephone follow-up, filing or storing on disk and data back-up facilities.

Computerised data capture is costly but it can save time. It routinises correspondence which can be voluminous. It is only needed if you are recruiting hundreds of people a year (more than two per week?). The aim is to cost unit clerical processing costs and ensure that data on job vacancies, applications and job offers/acceptances is easily accessible and helpful to management co-ordination of the recruitment process.

Administrative Arrangements
for the Interview/Test Programme

We have to:

• book accommodation for candidates in a local hotel
• negotiate diary slots for interviewers or bring them all together for a panel interview. Photocopy candidate application forms and make sure all internviewers are fully briefed on the jobs and the selection criteria.
• organise rooms and make arrangements for trade, aptitude or intelligence tests. Some of these may be taken externally
• make sure that candidates for interview have the time and all travel directions
• anticipate travel and subsistence costs (airfares, second class train, mileage?), hotel bills if any, fees for candidate testing.

Reception and a Cook's Tour

Reception and site security need to be informed about candidate attendance and arrangements for car parking etc.

If a Cook's tour of the site or office is part of the programme for candidates then this has to be organised and a guide found. It is courteous to inform staff working in the departments. protective clothing may be needed. We have to brief the guide if he/she is to offer any feedback (would it be useful?) on candidates?

Lunch and coffee arrangements may need to be made.

Making a Job Offer

When candidates have been seen and a decision made, we must make an offer. However be careful about the "zombie syndrome". Other good candidates need to be placed on hold until we know our first choice has accepted.

Can we contact our first choice candidate? A delay of a day may be significant for a few candidates who have other job offers in the pipeline. May they just be about to go on holiday? May a weekend's delay mean that they miss a deadline e.g. for notice of termination for their present job lengthening the period before they can start work with you?

The questions are innumerable and indicate the "nitty-gritty tensions" involved in making job offers. These can be real awkward problems.

• Can we call the preferred candidate at work/at home?
• Should we telephone them first with a job offer (for courtesy and to reassure) or just send a letter of offer?
• What details of terms and conditions employment - company handbooks etc will be attached to letters of job offer? Remember a contract of employment is being forged and details must be accurate. Avoid your prime candidate coming to feel that you are reneging on something (they thought) was agreed at interview. Clarify by telephone - correspondence is to slow and formal. Confirm in writing.
• One problem scenario is the candidate who tries to bargain for better terms and conditions of employment after being made a job offer. Yet at the interview - too much may have been left unsaid or assumed. There will be considerable detail to work out for many candidates e.g. holidays already booked, company car, re-location expenses etc. A candidate who has too many loose ends to pick up on will, maybe through no fault of their own, develop a reputation as being a nit-picker. This would not bode well as the start of a new relationship with work colleagues.

Data Protection Rights and Recruitment

Clearly when processing recruitment data considerable information about applicants is captured and retained. There are legal obligations in respect of the staff data. Personnel policies are required to cover the Data Protection Act 1998.

Right to Work in the UK

In line with the Immigration and Asylum Act 1996, the employer must check the applicant's entitlement to work in the UK documentation

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Assignment 1

Calculate the clerical and administration costs of corresponding with 500 applications from graduates for a 20 place graduate management training scheme.

Assignment 2

For the following vacancies,

1. what media/methods would you use to attract candidates
2. what methods of application would be best suitable?
3. what will be the characteristic concerns in processing applications for
   • a Director of a regional theatre company ?
   • a Manager of a car tyre and exhaust centre ?
   • a Chef for a steakhouse restaurant ?
   • a Head Chef for a five-star central London Hotel ?
   • a Hotel receptionist ?
   • a computer programmer ?
   • a sales assistant for an large West End department store ?
   • a Marketing Director for an large European wide group ?
   • an accountant for an NHS Trust ?
   • a Fork-lift truck driver ?
   • an English teacher for a secondary school ?
   • a Charity shop manager ?
   • a High speed packaging machine engineer?

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BOLA is developed and maintained by Chris Jarvis