1. Restructuring The Recruitment
& Selection Process
Rida Zaman

2. What is Recruitment?
Recruitment refers simply to the
process of hiring new staff.

4. Recruitment also involves a range of focused tasks
that need to be carried out correctly. These are:
• Understanding the need for a new employee
• Analysing the requirements of the role
• Creating the job advert
• Using the right advertising channels to attract the right applicants
• Managing the response to every job advert
• Monitoring applications
• Beginning the shortlisting process

5. What is selection?
With recruitment, you attract talent; now it’s time to qualify them for
the next stage. The initial goal here is to separate the unqualified and
qualified applications.

7. The difference between recruitment and
selection?
Recruitment is the task of developing
ways to attract the most suitable
candidates.
Selection is the methodology used to
identify the best applicant for every
vacancy.

8. Aligning recruitment and selection to build a
better workforce
• If your recruitment efforts are on-point, selection will automatically
go smoother because you’d receive more relevant applications.
Evaluation will be faster, and you’ll only be sifting through a qualified
pool and therefore increasing your chances of finding the ideal fit.
• If the recruitment process is strong enough, companies may also end
up with a better hire than they originally expected. That’s why it's
crucial to align recruitment and selection.
• Aligning the needs of the organisation and the competencies of the
workforce is essential. The solution is more thorough workforce
planning.

9. Aligning recruitment and selection to build a
better workforce
To more competently fill a vacancy, HR needs to understand the goals of the business and then
align recruitment to match those goals. That means it’s the responsibility of HR to:
• Understand the strategic goals of the business
• Identify the competencies the business needs to acquire to meet those goals
• Perform a talent analysis of existing employees (in-house recruitment is faster and more cost-
effective)
• Understand the availability of core competencies in the current labour market
• Fill the gaps between existing competencies and those needed (this could highlight the need for a
talent-building program for employee development, or narrow down the essential requirements
of a new hire)
Collaboration between every member of the HR team is vital, and the two-way flow of
communication needs to be prioritised. It’s important to understand that there must be a
substantial amount of time and money devoted to this process.

11. Recruitment - Identifying the vacancy
There are many reasons why the need to make a hire might become
essential. You may need to replace an employee who has moved to a
different company, or replace someone who has been promoted or has
moved to another department. It could simply be that the company
has grown and requires new team members.
In some cases, business growth means accessing new skills that were
previously unnecessary in the organisational structure. These can be
much more difficult to identify if the HR team is not engaged in
continuous communication with management teams.

12. Recruitment - Role analysis
With the vacancy identified, you need to develop a deep understanding
of what the role requires and which skill set would best complement
the team.
This step is called job analysis and evaluation and the findings are used
to help create the job advertisement. The more research you put into
this step, the stronger the job advert, and therefore, the smoother the
subsequent candidate selection process. In some cases, you may find
that the vacancy can be filled internally.

13. Recruitment - Creating a job description
• The job description can vary depending on the brand’s voice
and workplace culture. However, every job description should include
the following:
• The duties of the position
• The salary range
• The geographical location (or whether the position is ‘remote’)
• How many hours a week the role requires
• Remember that this isn’t the job advertisement; you’re just creating
the outline.

14. Recruitment - Applicant specification
The next step is to identify what the ideal candidate looks like. This will
be a list of the qualifications and specific skills that the HR team and
relevant department heads consider is needed to do the job well.
Getting the specifications right helps cut down the time it takes to
review and shortlist applications.

15. Recruitment - Advertising the vacancy
Now that the recruitment team knows what the role entails and what kind of
person they’re looking for, the vacancy needs to be advertised. Whether you're
hiring internally or opting for external sources of recruitment, the goal here is to
receive as many relevant applications as possible. That means choosing your
advertising channels carefully.
If you're only advertising for internal recruitment, then you will be using notice
boards or an in-house intranet to display the ad. Referral programs are also a
powerful strategy to consider when hiring internally, especially for organizations
with a global spread. For external recruitment, you have more options than ever.
One can even apply for a job via TikTok or Facebook now.
There are plenty of job advert platforms, and HR teams can use everything from
LinkedIn to Indeed. You can also use your local press, recruitment agencies, or rely
on employee referrals. The goal is to make sure that you get a large number of
relevant applicants.

17. Selection - Collecting applications
Once you have started to receive applications, they need to be
analyzed. All of the information that’s presented needs to be compared
with other applicants and against the person's specifications that have
already been identified.
Remember to make sure that candidates can apply in the ways that are
most convenient for them. Some will be applying using their PCs,
others might be job searching via their phones. Whichever channels
you use to advertise a role and collect applications, make certain that it
offers flexibility in terms of device and process.

18. Selection - The shortlist
Applications now need to be evaluated and shortlisted for the
interview process. This involves going through each application,
matching it to the person specifications, and comparing shortlisted
candidates for a final round of shortlisting.
You can speed up this stage of the process (and the whole recruitment
process) by using scientifically proven screening assessments that also
add accuracy and a bias-free component to recruitment. These tests
make it much easier to determine who should be invited to the next
stage of the hiring process.

19. Selection - Interviews
The interview process is a complex one. There are millions of articles, books,
and in-house manuals on job interviews. At its most basic, a job interview is
where qualified candidates find out more about the company and the
company learns more about the applicant.
Job interviews take many forms, including:
• One-on-one
• Panel interviews
• Group interviews (multiple candidates at the same time)
• Remote interviews (via phone or video)
• One-way video interviews

20. Selection - Interviews
A job interview may also be paired with additional testing. Practical
assessments are increasingly common, testing aptitude, intelligence, or
physical ability.
Skills assessment testing isn’t used by everyone during the interview
stage, but it’s one of the best ways to make sure that you hire the best
candidates. It allows you to see how well your applicants respond to
pressure, which is useful for gauging their response to the expected
workload.

21. Selection - Reference checks
During the interview process, one area that is frequently being
overlooked is the need for a candidate to provide references. The
reason this is much rarer than it used to be is that it’s far too easy to
game the system.
Too many applicants provide false information and false references.
However, those references need to be checked thoroughly. Anyone
providing falsified references can be removed from the shortlist.

22. Selection - Make an offer
The final stage of the selection process is to make an offer to the right applicant for
the position. This can be done over the phone, via email, or even by post. In some
cases, the HR team will call the person into the work environment to offer them the
position.
At times, your chosen candidate may not be happy with some of the basics (salary,
work condition, etc). That will mean entering a negotiation stage or turning your
attention to one of the previously shortlisted candidates.
There’s also the issue of candidate ghosting. A common complaint among job
seekers is about the time it takes to apply for a role only to never hear from the
business. HR teams are now seeing the opposite.
Offering someone a role and then never hearing from them again is increasingly
common. It can be a major blow to the recruiters and can add costs to recruitment.
It’s an incredibly disruptive event, and may even result in having to start the entire
recruitment cycle from scratch.

24. Transparency
A more transparent recruitment process improves the experience for the recruiters
and the candidates. One of the biggest complaints about recruitment is that the
realities of the advertised position are not reflected in the advertisement for those
positions. Issues with salary, benefits, or responsibilities will leave new hires
frustrated and they will be less likely to be productive.
Ignoring the importance of transparency means that candidates will be left feeling
negative. There will be more people ghosting or dropping out of the hiring process,
and more offers that are declined.
The trust element is often overlooked by recruiters, but it's an important aspect to
get right. More trust means more credibility for the business, and transparency
boosts trust. More communication, more honesty, and more realism when
discussing and advertising a position will go a long way to attracting the right
candidates.
That’s going to mean:

25. Creating realistic job adverts
Don’t try to oversell the positive aspect of the job
or overlook the harder aspects. If you’re skipping
over parts of the job then that’s going to mean
nasty surprises for the candidate if they accept
the position.

26. Have a realistic recruitment timeline
Let your candidates know how long they’re going to have to wait to
hear a response from you. That means at every stage of the
recruitment process. If they have submitted an application form or
resume, make sure that they receive an email thanking them for it and
letting them know how long it will be before they hear a response.
Let them know if their application has not been successful. Make it very
clear how long they can expect to wait for a decision after you have run
interviews. Keep them updated and your candidates will appreciate it.

27. List a salary
One of the biggest complaints about finding work right now is how
many job adverts fail to list a salary range. Now, this is an ongoing
discussion among HR professionals, and most will have a very strong
opinion on it.
However, although there are benefits to not listing a salary (such as
making sure competitors can’t outbid on top performers etc), the fact is
that including salary details has many positive effects.
• More applications (particularly from millennials)
• More transparency
• Less time-waste

28. Provide feedback
another of the big complaints about modern recruitment is the lack of
communication after an interview. As part of a more transparent
recruitment process, make sure that even unsuccessful candidates get
feedback. This may encourage them to work on their skills, meaning
they could be excellent hires in the future. Let candidates know where
they need to improve and the business can earn long-term credibility.
With a more transparent process, the hiring manager and the HR team will have more
confidence regarding the final decision. They will be connected at every stage of the
process, making communication and collaboration as straightforward and seamless as
possible.

29. Hiring Based On Merit
Bias can be either conscious or unconscious, and it hurts both
recruitment and the overall goals of any business. By fine-tuning
recruitment so that it relies on merit-based hires, the organisation only
grows stronger.
The best way to accomplish this is through the use of a pre-
employment assessment test. These will be anonymized, ensuring that
conscious and unconscious hiring bias is avoided. If HR ignores the
potential for bias, you risk missing out on top talent.

30. Delivering Consistency
To deliver a more consistent recruitment process, hiring managers and
recruiters should also have a high level of training. They will need to
know all of the basics such as employment law and basic interviewing
skills. If interviewers ask questions about sexual identity, disabilities,
age, etc, then the hiring process will be hindered.
Fair testing of candidates that only gauges the potential for job
performance rather than background history means fairer and more
consistent recruitment.
Not only does this ensure that unconscious bias is avoided, but it also
ensures that the business is not exposed to litigation and compensation
risks. Having a clear and definable recruitment roadmap is vital.

31. Better job adverts
A job advertisement is often the first
touchpoint for a potential hire. They will read
through the criteria, the duties, and the
salary and then decide whether the role is a
good fit for them.

32. Better job adverts
To create better job ads, focus on the following:
• Job title: Don’t use internal job titles, jargon, or any acronyms. You might be used
to them, but candidates may not be. Remember that many job seekers will be
using search functions to find roles, and they’re less likely to search for ‘customer
service ninja’ than ‘customer service jobs’. Stick to recognisable and common job
title names.
• List positives: Next, you want to sell the role to potential candidates. Highlight
what’s great about the role and the company. Take time to consider what is going
to attract the right applications. A good way to identify the positives of a position
and the business is to simply ask current team members.
• Include a summary: In the final part of the job ad, use a summary of the role that
will make it easier for a candidate to see themselves in that job. Use a call to
action to finish off.

33. Better job adverts
To create better job ads, focus on the following:
• Job title: Don’t use internal job titles, jargon, or any acronyms. You might be used
to them, but candidates may not be. Remember that many job seekers will be
using search functions to find roles, and they’re less likely to search for ‘customer
service ninja’ than ‘customer service jobs’. Stick to recognisable and common job
title names.
• List positives: Next, you want to sell the role to potential candidates. Highlight
what’s great about the role and the company. Take time to consider what is going
to attract the right applications. A good way to identify the positives of a position
and the business is to simply ask current team members.
• Include a summary: In the final part of the job ad, use a summary of the role that
will make it easier for a candidate to see themselves in that job. Use a call to
action to finish off.

34. What are the main objectives of the
recruitment and selection process?
The main objective of the recruitment and selection process is to ensure that the
best person is chosen to fill the current vacancy. However, there are additional
objectives that are often overlooked:
• Ensure job postings appeal to a high number of people
• Identifying applicants that will fit the company culture
• Reduce the risk of a hire handing in their notice after only a brief time
• Hire based on merit so that the brand’s social and diversity commitments are met
• Improve brand reputation via the use of an unbiased, effective, and fair hiring
process
• Collect details of excellent candidates who may be interested in a position in the
future
• Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of the existing recruitment process, and
making changes as needed