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Recruitment Worksheet (Student Version)

• Recruitment Worksheet
• Tutor notes

This worksheet looks at the process companies have to go through to employ personnel, and then considers the rights that employees have in their jobs.

Step 1 - Who do you want?

The first stage in employing people is to work out exactly what that person will be required to do. What will be their responsibilities, who will their manager be, what skills will they require and a host of other questions have to be answered before you can even begin to appoint someone. These may all be outlined in a 'job description'. From this the firm can write a 'person specification' setting out the profile of the sort of person required for the job.

To find out what should be included in a person specification go to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (http://www.cipd.co.uk/) site and look at their key fact sheets. You will find these by clicking on policy, and then on key fact sheets. Use the key fact sheet on recruitment to find out the main items that should be included in a person specification.

N.B. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download these fact sheets.

What should a person specification include?

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To find out a bit more about what firms may look for in their employees, go to the Business Profiles section on Biz/ed, and write a brief summary of what two companies look for in their potential employees.

Company 1

Company 2

Step 2 - How do you get them?

Now that the firm has a person specification it has to try to find the best person to fit that specification. The firm has two options:

1. Appoint an internal candidate - someone who works in the firm already
2. Appoint an external candidate

What advantages might you expect from appointing an internal candidate?

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What disadvantages might there be from internal candidates?

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If you want to appoint an external candidate (maybe because an internal candidate couldn't be found or wasn't considered appropriate), then the post has to be advertised. Go back again to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (http://www.cipd.co.uk/) site and look again at the fact sheet on recruitment.

What should a job advert include?

1.

Another method of finding potential candidates is to use a job agency. There are a large number of them who have sites on the Internet. One example is Reed Employment (http://www.reed.co.uk/). Go to their site and try to find out some examples of who their main clients are:

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Step 3 - Now what?

Hopefully you will now be bombarded by applications from suitable candidates. You need, however, to get written information on each candidate. You could either do this by getting them to submit a 'Curriculum Vitae' (sometimes called a 'resume') or get them to fill in an 'application form'. Find out from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (http://www.cipd.co.uk/) fact sheet on recruitment, what the main characteristics of an application form should be:

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N.B. There are some good sites on the Internet to help you with preparation of CVs. For example there is an American site giving resume tips (http://www.jobweb.org/catapult/guenov/restips.html) and in the Career guide on Lycos (http://www.lycos.co.uk/) there are a number of other helpful links.

From these applications a shortlist of the best candidates will be drawn up and an interview time arranged. From the CIPD factsheet (http://www.cipd.co.uk/) on recruitment, find out the main things that should be done at interview:

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Then the best candidate is chosen and offered the job. However, the company must ensure that the 'job offer' has all relevant information about what the person is being offered. Check once again with the CIPD factsheet (http://www.cipd.co.uk/) on recruitment to see what a job offer should include:

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Step 4 - So that's it?

Well no - not if you're a good employer. Employing someone should just be the start of the process. If you want to keep and develop the skills of your staff, then induction and training are absolutely vital. Refer once again to the CIPD factsheet (http://www.cipd.co.uk/) on recruitment, to answer the following questions:

What is meant by induction?

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What should induction include?

1.

Why is it important that the whole process of selection and recruitment is a positive one?

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Step 5 - Now they're there, can they stay?

Employees have certain rights in their jobs that are set out in a variety of employment laws. These change regularly and so you would always need to check your rights carefully before acting in any way. As part of the TUC company facts section on Biz/ed, you will find a section on your rights at work. Use this resource to fill in the following table, and answer the questions:

What is meant by unfair dismissal?

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Use the same sources to decide whether in each of the following cases the person has been 'unfairly dismissed'.

TUC company facts

What action can you take if you feel you have been unfairly dismissed?

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Step 6 - Redundant?

Use the TUC company facts section on Biz/ed to answer the following:

What is meant by redundancy?

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How much redundancy money would you be entitled to in each of the following situations? Show your calculations below the table.

Step 7 - Do we need further protection?

Employment rights vary from one country to another. Should we perhaps have further rights? If you want to contrast UK employment rights (http://www.tuc.org.uk/) with US rights, you could use the Nolo employment thesaurus (http://www.nolo.com/) to find out about US practices.

One area of further employment rights is the provision of 'paternity leave'. Should fathers have a statutory right for time off when their children are borne?

Write a summary of the main arguments for and against the provision of paternity leave.

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