Sourcing Candidate

This is Critical stage of the recruitment process and it is one that is often overlooked or simply delegated to human resources department without much thought. The best candidate are not always looking for a new job and so a proactive or creative approach will often yield the best results. The main sources of attracting candidates are below.

Internal :

In many organization it is regarded as best practice to sources potential candidates internally. This can be before any external sourcing occurs or in parallel with external sourcing. As additional and important consideration here is encouraging existing employees to recommend potential recruits and providing them with incentive for doing so. Diligent employees will normally try to refer only good quality candidates.

Advertising:

Probably the most common source of attracting job applicants. Care should be taken to advertise in the right medium for the type of candidate and expertise being sought. Options include local press, national press, national press, trade press, and more recently online recruitment websites.

Recruitment Agencies :

On the surface recruitment agencies are a much more expensive option than direct advertising. However, used in the right way they provide some important benefits over and above direct advertising. Firstly, they might be able to source candidates that will not be actively reading the advertising media above. This is particularly true of candidates who are successful in their current role but have registered with an agency to be kept informed of interesting openings.

If you are using an agency, should manage them assertively and proactively. Provide them with an overview of your person specification and make it clear that any candidate they put forward must meet the key criteria you have specified.

Educational Establishment :

Universities, colleges and even schools can provide a useful opportunity for sourcing candidates where raw material rather than experience is preferred.

Armed Forces :

This is often an overlooked area but one where you can find some excellent candidates. People tend to leave the armed forces with high skill levels, particularly technical skills. Most of them also have an excellent work ethic. And to make life easier many armed forces have redeployment departments, i.e a free service for helping you find the right candidates.

Online enquiry on Company website : Some candidates find the good company websites online and search for career option. They submit their details with resume and express their willingness to join the company. the good HR system do not miss this opportunity.

Expo and Seminars : Expo and exhibitions can be a rich sources for recruiting people within an industry sector, particularly sales people and technical specialist. You should consider networking at such events even if you are not recruiting at the time you attend. Building up a bank of contacts might help you when you are recruiting.

Now till we are aware about the potential sources of manpower availability for recruiting and ask yourself that your current serch is enough. In all cases care should be taken only to provide limited details of the person specification when sourcing candidates in case individual try to make themselves fir the criteria.

Person Specification

A person specification is a document that describes a abilities and qualities that are required to do the job you are recruiting for. It is the most important part of the recruitment process, because it drives everything else. It dictates where you source candidates from, how you screen application, what questions you ask at interview, what tests you use and, most importantly, it is the basis for your final recruitment decision.

In writing a top quality person specification you are able to influence the recruitment process at every stage to ensure the best person is appointed. Typically the following is to be included.

1. Education and qualification.

2. Core knowledge and skills.

3. Specific competency.

4. Personality, Character Traits and disposition.

5. Miscellaneous Requirements ( e.g. Work away from home, driving license.)

In each of this section there should be a list of the requirements to fulfill the job role. Each item should be labelled as either essential or preferred. As a guide, the ratio between essential and preferred items should be approximately one third to two thirds, respectively and this is why at any point in the recruitment process, an individual who does not meet an essential criterion should be immediately screened out. If you have too many essential criteria you run the risk of screening out good candidate based on technicality. It might be difficult to find any candidates at all.

Education and Qualification : This is self explanatory but care should be taken not included criteria here for the sake of it. What is absolutely required for the role and what would be useful.

Core knowledge and Skills : Many of these criteria can be drawn from information in the competency matrix, albeit the focus is on core knowledge and skills acquisition rather than application. An example would be good presentation skills.

Personality, Character traits and disposition :There are the special qualities that will help you differential between good and great people.

Miscellaneous requirements : We can say the operational requirements or conditions we or candidate needs to fulfill. Better to take this call up with Human resources which can be settled against some compensation or would be easy to take decisions.

Job Description

Actually you should not wait until you have a vacancy before producing a job description. It is a useful tool to help manage the expectation of staff on an ongoing basis and given that job roles change and evolve, the best person to keep a job description up to date is incumbent job holder.

A job description is use document for supplying to prospective candidates to make them aware of the role they are applying for and will typically tend to have the following component

1. Job Title
2. Grade
3. Span of Control ( Up / Down)
4. Job Overview
5. Main Responsibility
6. Key Tasks

Review Team member's job description as a part of appraisal process. This helps to manage staff expectations as well as ensuring a job description is always available when recruitment need arises.

A job description is a list that a person might use for general tasks, or functions, and responsibilities of a position. It may often include to whom the position reports, specifications such as the qualifications or skills needed by the person in the job, or a salary range. Job descriptions are usually narrative, but some may instead comprise a simple list of competencies; for instance, strategic human resource planning methodologies may be used to develop a competency architecture for an organization, from which job descriptions are built as a shortlist of competencies

A job description is usually developed by conducting a job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job. The analysis considers the areas of knowledge and skills needed for the job. A job usually includes several roles. The job description might be broadened to form a person specification or may be known as Terms Of Reference.

Go Back :   Recruitment Formula

Motivation in Business

Business:

At lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, such as physiological needs, money is a motivator, however it tends to have a motivating effect on staff that lasts only for a short period (in accordance with Herzberg's two-factor model of motivation). At higher levels of the hierarchy, praise, respect, recognition, empowerment and a sense of belonging are far more powerful motivators than money, as both Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation and Douglas McGregor's theory X and theory Y (pertaining to the theory of leadership) demonstrate.

According to Maslow, people are motivated by unsatisfied needs [22]. The lower level needs such as Physiological and Safety needs will have to be satisfied before higher level needs are to be addressed. We can relate Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory with employee motivation. For example, if a manager is trying to motivate his employees by satisfying their needs; according to Maslow, he should try to satisfy the lower level needs before he tries to satisfy the upper level needs or the employees will not be motivated. Also he has to remember that not everyone will be satisfied by the same needs. A good manager will try to figure out which levels of needs are active for a certain individual or employee.

Maslow has money at the lowest level of the hierarchy and shows other needs are better motivators to staff. McGregor places money in his Theory X category and feels it is a poor motivator. Praise and recognition are placed in the Theory Y category and are considered stronger motivators than money.

• Motivated employees always look for better ways to do a job.
• Motivated employees are more quality oriented.
• Motivated workers are more productive.

The average workplace is about midway between the extremes of high threat and high opportunity. Motivation by threat is a dead-end strategy, and naturally staff are more attracted to the opportunity side of the motivation curve than the threat side. Motivation is a powerful tool in the work environment that can lead to employees working at their most efficient levels of production.

Nonetheless, Steinmetz also discusses three common character types of subordinates: ascendant, indifferent, and ambivalent who all react and interact uniquely, and must be treated, managed, and motivated accordingly. An effective leader must understand how to manage all characters, and more importantly the manager must utilize avenues that allow room for employees to work, grow, and find answers independently.

The assumptions of Maslow and Herzberg were challenged by a classic study at Vauxhall Motors' UK manufacturing plant. This introduced the concept of orientation to work and distinguished three main orientations: instrumental (where work is a means to an end), bureaucratic (where work is a source of status, security and immediate reward) and solidaristic (which prioritises group loyalty).

Other theories which expanded and extended those of Maslow and Herzberg included Kurt Lewin's Force Field Theory, Edwin Locke's Goal Theory and Victor Vroom's Expectancy theory. These tend to stress cultural differences and the fact that individuals tend to be motivated by different factors at different times.

According to the system of scientific management developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, a worker's motivation is solely determined by pay, and therefore management need not consider psychological or social aspects of work. In essence, scientific management bases human motivation wholly on extrinsic rewards and discards the idea of intrinsic rewards.

In contrast, David McClelland believed that workers could not be motivated by the mere need for money—in fact, extrinsic motivation (e.g., money) could extinguish intrinsic motivation such as achievement motivation, though money could be used as an indicator of success for various motives, e.g., keeping score. In keeping with this view, his consulting firm, McBer & Company, had as its first motto "To make everyone productive, happy, and free." For McClelland, satisfaction lay in aligning a person's life with their fundamental motivations.

Elton Mayo found that the social contacts a worker has at the workplace are very important and that boredom and repetitiveness of tasks lead to reduced motivation. Mayo believed that workers could be motivated by acknowledging their social needs and making them feel important. As a result, employees were given freedom to make decisions on the job and greater attention was paid to informal work groups. Mayo named the model the Hawthorne effect. His model has been judged as placing undue reliance on social contacts at work situations for motivating employees.

In Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Robbins and Judge examine recognition programs as motivators, and identify five principles that contribute to the success of an employee incentive program:

Recognition of employees' individual differences, and clear identification of behavior deemed worthy of recognition

• Allowing employees to participate
• Linking rewards to performance
• Rewarding of nominators
• Visibility of the recognition process

Motivational Theories

Incentive theory

A reward, tangible or intangible, is presented after the occurrence of an action (i.e. behavior) with the intent to cause the behavior to occur again. This is done by associating positive meaning to the behavior. Studies show that if the person receives the reward immediately, the effect is greater, and decreases as duration lengthens. Repetitive action-reward combination can cause the action to become habit. Motivation comes from two sources: oneself, and other people. These two sources are called intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, respectively.

Reinforcers and reinforcement principles of behavior differ from the hypothetical construct of reward. A reinforcer is any stimulus change following a response that increases the future frequency or magnitude of that response, therefore the cognitive approach is certainly the way forward as in 1973 Maslow descibed it as being the golden pineapple. Positive reinforcement is demonstrated by an increase in the future frequency or magnitude of a response due to in the past being followed contingently by a reinforcing stimulus. Negative reinforcement involves stimulus change consisting of the removal of an aversive stimulus following a response. Positive reinforcement involves a stimulus change consisting of the presentation or magnification of an appetitive stimulus following a response. From this perspective, motivation is mediated by environmental events, and the concept of distinguishing between intrinsic and extrinsic forces is irrelevant.

Applying proper motivational techniques can be much harder than it seems. Steven Kerr notes that when creating a reward system, it can be easy to reward A, while hoping for B, and in the process, reap harmful effects that can jeopardize your goals.

Incentive theory in psychology treats motivation and behavior of the individual as they are influenced by beliefs, such as engaging in activities that are expected to be profitable. Incentive theory is promoted by behavioral psychologists, such as B.F. Skinner and literalized by behaviorists, especially by Skinner in his philosophy of Radical behaviorism, to mean that a person's actions always have social ramifications: and if actions are positively received people are more likely to act in this manner, or if negatively received people are less likely to act in this manner.

Incentive theory distinguishes itself from other motivation theories, such as drive theory, in the direction of the motivation. In incentive theory, stimuli "attract", to use the term above, a person towards them. As opposed to the body seeking to reestablish homeostasis pushing it towards the stimulus. In terms of behaviorism, incentive theory involves positive reinforcement: the stimulus has been conditioned to make the person happier. For instance, a person knows that eating food, drinking water, or gaining social capital will make them happier. As opposed to in drive theory, which involves negative reinforcement: a stimulus has been associated with the removal of the punishment-- the lack of homeostasis in the body. For example, a person has come to know that if they eat when hungry, it will eliminate that negative feeling of hunger, or if they drink when thirsty, it will eliminate that negative feeling of thirst.

Drive-reduction theory

There are a number of drive theories. The Drive Reduction Theory grows out of the concept that we have certain biological drives, such as hunger. As time passes the strength of the drive increases if it is not satisfied (in this case by eating). Upon satisfying a drive the drive's strength is reduced. The theory is based on diverse ideas from the theories of Freud to the ideas of feedback control systems, such as a thermostat.

Drive theory has some intuitive or folk validity. For instance when preparing food, the drive model appears to be compatible with sensations of rising hunger as the food is prepared, and, after the food has been consumed, a decrease in subjective hunger. There are several problems, however, that leave the validity of drive reduction open for debate. The first problem is that it does not explain how secondary reinforcers reduce drive. For example, money satisfies no biological or psychological needs, but a pay check appears to reduce drive through second-order conditioning. Secondly, a drive, such as hunger, is viewed as having a "desire" to eat, making the drive a homuncular being—a feature criticized as simply moving the fundamental problem behind this "small man" and his desires.

In addition, it is clear that drive reduction theory cannot be a complete theory of behavior, or a hungry human could not prepare a meal without eating the food before he finished cooking it. The ability of drive theory to cope with all kinds of behavior, from not satisfying a drive (by adding on other traits such as restraint), or adding additional drives for "tasty" food, which combine with drives for "food" in order to explain cooking render it hard to test.

Cognitive dissonance theory

Suggested by Leon Festinger, cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual experiences some degree of discomfort resulting from an incompatibility between two cognitions. For example, a consumer may seek to reassure himself regarding a purchase, feeling, in retrospect, that another decision may have been preferable.

While not a theory of motivation, per se, the theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, or actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. It is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.

Also Read : Motivation in Business

Motivation

Motivation is a term that refers to a process that elicits, controls, and sustains certain behaviors. For instance: An individual has not eaten, he or she feels hungry, as a response he or she eats and diminishes feelings of hunger. According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in a basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, selfishness, morality, or avoiding mortality. Conceptually, motivation should not be confused with either volition or optimism.[1] Motivation is related to, but distinct from, emotion.

History :

At one time, employees were considered just another input into the production of goods and services . But this changed after the Hawthorne Studies . The Hawthorne studies were conducted by Elton Mayo at Hawthorne Plant in the 1920's. The researches were studying the effect of different working environments on productivity. They used lighting as an experimental variable (the effect of bright lighting and dull lighting). Initially they noticed that employees were working harder but it was not because of the lighting. They concluded that productivity increased due to attention that the workers got from the research team and not because of changes to the experimental variable. Hawthorne studies found that employees are not motivated solely by money but motivation is linked to employee behaviour and their attitudes . The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, so the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers.

Motivation concepts : Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure. Intrinsic Motivation is based on taking pleasure in an activity rather working towards an external reward. Intrinsic motivation has been studied by social and educational psychologists since the early 1970s. Students who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to engage in the task willingly as well as work to improve their skills, which will increase their capabilities. Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:attribute their educational results to factors under their own control, also known as autonomy,believe they have the skill that will allow them to be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by luck),are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades.

Extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity in order to attain an outcome, which then contradicts intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the individual. Common extrinsic motivations are rewards like money and grades, coercion and threat of punishment. Competition is in general extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity. A crowd cheering on the individual and trophies are also extrinsic incentives.Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can lead to over justification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation. In one study demonstrating this effect, children who expected to be (and were) rewarded with a ribbon and a gold star for drawing pictures spent less time playing with the drawing materials in subsequent observations than children who were assigned to an unexpected reward condition.[citation needed] For those children who received no extrinsic reward, Self-determination theory proposes that extrinsic motivation can be internalised by the individual if the task fits with their values and beliefs and therefore helps to fulfill their basic psychological needs.

Self-control:

The self-control of motivation is increasingly understood as a subset of emotional intelligence; a person may be highly intelligent according to a more conservative definition (as measured by many intelligence tests), yet unmotivated to dedicate this intelligence to certain tasks. Yale School of Management professor Victor Vroom's "expectancy theory" provides an account of when people will decide whether to exert self control to pursue a particular goal.

Drives and desires can be described as a deficiency or need that activates behavior that is aimed at a goal or an incentive. These are thought to originate within the individual and may not require external stimuli to encourage the behavior. Basic drives could be sparked by deficiencies such as hunger, which motivates a person to seek food; whereas more subtle drives might be the desire for praise and approval, which motivates a person to behave in a manner pleasing to others.

By contrast, the role of extrinsic rewards and stimuli can be seen in the example of training animals by giving them treats when they perform a trick correctly. The treat motivates the animals to perform the trick consistently, even later when the treat is removed from the process.

Also Read : Common factor that Affects Motivation
Also Read : Motivation Theories