EMPLOYEE RESOURCING

PREPARED BY:
JOHN KAROKI, MBA. (KU), BBA

MUCHEL’LE/EMPLOYEE RESOURCING
 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Table Of Contents. ............................................................................................ 2

Employee Resourcing: An Introduction ......................................................... 4
Topic 1: Labour Economics ............................................................................. 5
Factors Influencing The Labour Market In Kenya ..................................... 5
Productivity Of Labour................................................................................ 10
Education And Manpower ........................................................................ 11
Wages And Employment Growth............................................................. 12
Factors Determining The Level Of Productivity....................................... 12
Increasing Labour Productivity. ................................................................ 13
Methods Of Controlling Labour Costs. ..................................................... 13
Topic 2: Job Analysis An Introduction. ......................................................... 16
Job Analysis Methods ................................................................................. 20
Job Analysis Method 1: Interviewing ........................................................ 21
Job Analysis Method Ii: Observation ....................................................... 23
Job Analysis: Method 3: Questionnaire ................................................... 24
Job Analysis Method 4: Checklists And Inventories ............................... 25
Job Analysis Method 5: Materials Of Work .............................................. 25
Job Analysis Method 6: Previous Studies ................................................. 26
Job Analysis Method 7: Critical Incidents ................................................ 26
Job Analysis Method 8: Do-It-Yourself ...................................................... 26
Job Analysis Method 9: Work Diaries & Logs ........................................... 26
Job Analysis Method 10: Hierarchical Tasks Analysis ............................. 27
Job Analysis 11: Self – Description............................................................. 27
The Writing-Up Process ............................................................................... 27
Preparation Of A Job Description And Specification ........................... 29
Job Descriptions .......................................................................................... 29
Job Specification ........................................................................................ 30
Potential Problems With Job Analysis ....................................................... 30

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Topic 3: Human Resources Planning (HRP) ................................................. 32
Introduction & Definition ............................................................................ 32
The Labour Market ...................................................................................... 33
Determination Of HR Requirements ......................................................... 34
Human Resource Demand Forecasting .................................................. 34
Long Range Factors .................................................................................... 34
Short Range Factors .................................................................................... 35
How To Forecast Personnel Needs ........................................................... 36
Methods Of Labour Demand Forecasting .............................................. 36
Tools And Techniques For Demand Forecasting .................................... 37
Advantages Of HRP .................................................................................... 40
Hr Labour Supply Forecasting And The HR Actions ................................ 41
Analyzing Existing Human Resources ....................................................... 42
Labour Turnover ........................................................................................... 44
Reconciling Supply And Demand For Labour And The HR Actions .... 48
Human Resource Actions .......................................................................... 48
HRP Limiting Factors .................................................................................... 54
Tools And Techniques Of Human Resource Planning. .......................... 55
Topic 4: Recruitment And Selection............................................................. 59
Methods Of Internal And External Recruitment. .................................... 65
Employee Selection: ................................................................................... 71
Introduction .................................................................................................. 71
Selection Methods. ..................................................................................... 73
Types Of Interviews...................................................................................... 79
Placement And Orientation Or Induction ............................................... 92
Topic 5: Legislation Governing Employment In Kenya.............................. 96

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 EMPLOYEE RESOURCING: AN INTRODUCTION

Introduction
This course is intended to cover the techniques of manpower planning,
recruitment, selection and placement in order to meet the present and
future needs of the organization.

General Objectives
At the end of this unit, the trainee should be able to: -

 Understand the dynamics of the labour market in Kenya and how

they affect selection and hiring processes
 Understand the relationship between organizational structure and
the HR requirements for the organization
 Appreciate the need for HR planning
 Draw up a short term and long term HR plan for the organization
 Appreciate the need for job analysis in the procurement processes
 Develop competence in the area of employee procurement

Topic to Be Covered
 Labour Economics
 Job Analysis
 Human Resource Planning
 Recruitment And Selection
 Legislation Governing Employment In Kenya

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 TOPIC 1: LABOUR ECONOMICS

Specific Objectives
At the end of this topic, the trainee should be able to: -

 Identify factors influencing labour market in Kenya

 Analyse ways of increasing productivity of labour
 Identify methods of controlling labour costs
 Evaluate impact of education and training on the employment
opportunity

Introduction
Employee resourcing is concerned with ensuring that the organisation
obtains and retains the people it needs and employs them
productively. It is also about those aspects of employment practice
that are concerned with welcoming people to the organisation, and if
there is no alternative release them.

Labour is a factor of production. It is a different factor of production

since it’s not a substitute for land in overpopulated countries labour is
‘abundant’ while land is scarce.

One needs to make a distinction between physical or unskilled labour

and skilled labour. Some countries have an abundant supply of
unskilled labour but an acute shortage of skilled labour of all types a
major hindrance to economic growth.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE LABOUR MARKET IN KENYA

Supply and Demand for Labour

Demand for a factor is known as derived demand, i.e. it s derived from

the demand for the product it can produce. E.g. if demand for sugar
increases, the demand for sugar cane increases, the demand for
workers in the sugar cane estates will increase. It therefore follows that
labour is in abundant supply where derived demand is high.

Derived
demand

Demand for Labour

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Supply of labour can be seen from the entire economy point of view
the size of the national workforce. Determinants affecting the size of
the economically active population or national workforce include; the
size of the population itself, the age structure, ratio of men to women,
the average working day and efficiency of quality of the labour effort.
A developing nation is characterized by unlimited supply of labour
form the rural areas – consisting of underemployed workers. The supply
curve of labour to an industry or economy slopes up form left to right. If
the price of labour (wage rate) goes up, the amount of labour supplied
will increase.

Wage
rate

Supply of labour

However in developing countries, the supply curve of labour is

“backward sloping” – the supply curve of labour is “backward sloping”.
The supply curve slopes down form left to right, so that an increase in
wage results in a decrease in the amount. People prefer leisure to
money to an extent that an increase in money earnings is more likely to
lead to a decrease in the amount of work done.

Wage
rate

Backward
bending supply
curve
Hours worked
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Income and Substitution Effects
With any form of labour anywhere, there must be some point at which
the amount of labour supplied by an individual ceases to increase or
decrease, as the wage rate increases. This is because money income is
not desired for its own sake, but for the goods it can buy. And the
enjoyment of these goods will be impossible without at least a
minimum amount of leisure; as one sets better off he is likely at some
point to take at least part of the increased standard of living n the form
of more leisure – and thus work fewer hours. The increase in real income
is therefore an incentive to work less hard, to consume more leisure. This
is known as the income effect (rise in income leading to more leisure)
and the substitution effect caused by the change in the price of the
leisure (less income taken).

Hours
worked
daily

Leisure Income
Hours
Daily

The Downward Sloping Demand Curve

Firms need workers to produce goods and services. The demand curve
for labour shows how many workers will be hired at any given wage
rate over a particular time period. Economic theory suggests that the
higher the price of labour, the less labour firms will hire. The higher the
wage rate, the more likely it s that firms will substitute machines for
workers and hence the lower the demand for labour.

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 Labour

Capital

In the third world, where labour is cheap relative to capital, firms tend
to choose labour intensive methods of production. In the first world,
labour is relatively expensive and hence more capital-intensive
techniques of production are chosen.

The Supply Curve of Labour

A rise in real wage rates may or may not increase the supply of labour
by individual workers in the industry. However, it is likely to attract new
workers in the industry. The supply curve of labour is likely to be upward
sloping. The higher the wages the more workers will want to enter the
particular industry.

Key Terms
 Activity or participation rates – the percentage or proportion of any
given population in the labour force.
 Economically active – the number of workers in the workforce who
are in a job or are unemployed.
 Net migration – immigration minus emigration.
 Workforce/labour force – those economically active and therefore
in work or seeking work.
 Workforce jobs – the number of workers in employment. It excludes
the unemployed.

1. The Supply of Labour

Supply may be taken to mean the total number of people of working
age. It may also mean the supply of labour service available. The total
supply of labour in an economy depends upon: -

Size of the population. Size of population: - this sets an obvious limit to

the total supply of labour.
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The proportion of the population which works/available for
employment. This is determined chiefly by age distribution, social
institutions, customs, participation rate of married women and the
wages offered.

The amount of work offered by each individual labourer. Number of

hours worked by each person per year. Higher rates of pay usually
induce a person to work overtime, the increased reward encouraging
him to substitute work for leisure. But this is not always so.

Factors influencing the labour market in Kenya: A summary

o Supply and demand for labour
o Production techniques/technology
o Quality of labour/education levels
o Cost of labour/wage rates
o Population dynamics – migration, age etc
o Government – legislation EEO, wage guidance, age requirements,
entertainment, culture
o Socio cultural factors
o Environment and climate

2. Production Techniques and Technology

In the developing world where technology is not extensively applied
the demand for labour is high. This s as compared to the developed
world where machines are used to replace people. Our production
techniques are labour intensive and as such demand for labour is high.

3. Quality of labour
There is an important difference between low wages and cheap
labour. Despite low wages in labour – abundant countries, labour is not
nearly as cheap as it appears since low wages are to a great extent
offset by low productivity. This is attributed to the poor education levels
among the labour force. The higher the levels of education, the
scarcer the unskilled labourers become.

4. Wage rates
High relative wages outside Kenya have attracted highly skilled
professional in such countries as Botswana and South Africa. High
labour costs may also make a company resort to technology. High
wage rates are also known to attract and hold labour in most
unattractive areas of the country. Unpleasant but unskilled jobs are
often poorly paid because anyone can do them. Shifts in earnings may
create substantial inflows of workers into an expanding occupation,
industry or area and an outflow of workers from a depressed
occupation, industry or area.
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5. Population Dynamics
The number of people searching for work in a developing country
depend primarily on the size and age composition of the population.
The age structure of the population also affects the labour market. An
aging population has fewer workforces and therefore few people are
available for work.

The rapid reductions in death rates experienced by most developing

economies have expanded the size of their present labour force while
continuous high birth-rates create high dependency ratios and rapidly
expanding future labour force.

6. Government Legislation
Governments may affect the labour market through various legislations
such as; equal employment opportunity, age limit for employment and
retirement and minimum wage limits. The trade union movement
activities may also have an impact on the labour market.

PRODUCTIVITY OF LABOUR

There are two main factors, which reduce the supply of labour – the
longer period of education and the shorter workweek. Efficiency of
labour is the ability to achieve a greater output in a shorter time
without any falling off in the quality of the work – increased productivity
per man employed. The efficacy of the labour force depends on a
number of influences: -

 Climate – this can be an important influence on the willingness to

work, for extremes of temperature or humidity are not conducive to
concentration on tasks.
 Health of the worker – workers must be adequately fed, clothed and
housed. Attention to the employee’s physical welfare reduces time
lost from sickness and improves general efficiency. The cost of a
health service might be offset to some extent by increased
production
 Peace of mind – anxiety is detrimental to efficacy. A social security
scheme relives people from worry about the future by providing
form them in times of sickness, unemployment and old age
 Working conditions – the general conditions under which people
work can affect their output. Workplace health and safety is an

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 important consideration here. Heating, lighting, ventilation, noise,
provision of rest pauses and tea breaks help reduce fatigue and
increase output. Provision of recreation facilities and canteens has
the same objective
 Education and training – this factor has 3 aspects general
education, technical education, and training with industry. General
education is a foundation upon which more specialized vocational
training can be based. Training within industry is offered by each
firm that opts to train its own employees, in the correct manner that
it desires work to be done.
 Efficiency of the factors – the productivity of labour will be increased
if the quality of the other factors of production is high. Fertile land,
sufficient capital and division of labour all increase the efficiency of
labour.

Education and Manpower

Governments have expanded educational budgets in part because

they have seen education as an investment in human capital and the
training of manpower needed for development.

Education may have important labour market effects, accelerating

rural – urban migration and increasing the amount of labour force and
even wastage of manpower.

Education may through its effects on the wage and salary structure
effect income distribution and equality of opportunity to jobs.

The type of education offered could influence attitudes, attitudes to

manual or agricultural work, interest in business and risk taking.

Due to the importance of education to manpower, governments are

now formulating HRD programmes, which make explicit the role of
education in labour force development. This can be seen in provision
of formal or informal education, and in manpower planning.

Formally educated manpower is always in abundance in the

developing world, taking up the rates of unemployment and labour
wastage.

A different approach towards planning educational investment is the

method of manpower planning. The approach here is to make a
demand projection or forecast of the economy’s requirements of
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different categories of labour in future time periods, and a supply
projection for the same categories and periods, comparing them and
determining which categories of manpower will be short supply.
Training programmes can then be adjusted to alleviate the shortages.

The key to mobility among occupations is education. Many skills are

learned rather than inherited. This is the stock of personal capital
acquired by each worker. Since investment in labour skills is similar to
investment in physical capital, acquired skills are called HUMAN
CAPITAL. The supply of some particular skill increases when more
people find it worthwhile to acquire the necessary human capital and
decreases when fewer do so. Because acquiring human capital is
costly, the more highly skilled the job, the more it must pay if enough
people are to be attracted to train for it.

ASSIGNMENT:
Identify the methods used to control labour costs

WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT GROWTH

There is a relatively slow growth of employment in the developing

countries due to low wage levels. However, on the other hand
increases in real wages re a significant factor restraining growth in
employment. Rapid increases in real wages retard paid employment
opportunities.

FACTORS DETERMINING THE LEVEL OF PRODUCTIVITY.

 The stock of capital available; money, machinery and other capital

equipment used in the organisation.
 The nature of the human resources available in the organisation;
skilled and experienced manpower.
 Conducive working environment; encouraging workers through
motivation, team work etc.
 Level of technology; on the machines and tools used at the places
of work e.g. latest technology would contribute to higher
productivity.
 Effective organisational procedures, policies, rules and regulations.
 Motivational measures adopted by the organisation. It includes job
enlargement and enrichment.

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 Strength of the management team. A strong management team
will improve employee morale leading to high work performance
and productivity.

INCREASING LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY.

i) Providing training and development programmes to employees to

improve their skills and level of performance, hence a high level of
productivity.
ii) Improving working facilities and equipment e.g. installation of
modern equipment, machinery and computers.
iii) Effective organisational structures e.g. departmentation, delegation
of authority etc.
iv) Effective job design i.e. the level of job enlargement or job
enrichment in the organisation.
v) Improve working conditions; fair and appropriate rules and
regulations; democratic leadership approaches to management.
vi) Conducive working environment and god organisational climate;
level of cleanliness, sanitary conditions of the organisation; friendly
working environment; employee health and safety measures.
vii) Motivation or incentive measures provided by the organisation;
attractive employment packages, wages and salaries, medical,
housing etc; opportunity for promotions through internal
recruitment.
viii) Provision of social amenities to staff; sports, club membership.
These enable workers to reduce stress and strain of the workplace.
ix) Provision of rest breaks at places of work; tea break, lunch break
etc.
x) Provision of leave; annual, sick off etc.
xi) Friendly work environment; team spirit, knowing employees in great
detail, concept of shared fate (that the company belongs to
everyone and if it goes down all will suffer; and if it succeeds all will
benefit)
xii) Client/service chain concept; all employees must understand that
all their activities are meant to serve the “customer” – the person
who uses the product of their work.

METHODS OF CONTROLLING LABOUR COSTS.

The total cost of production TC= Fixed cost (FC) + Variable costs (VC)

Where

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TC = the total cost of production
FC = Fixed cost (FC) {Machinery, plant, salaries, taxes, rent}
VC = Variable costs (VC) {wages, materials, transport)

The term labour costs refer to additions to the total cost of production
contributed by or associated with units of labour (employees).
Methods of controlling labour costs are concerned with measures to
reduce the cost of labour and improve efficiency. The following
measures should be undertaken to control the labour costs:

i) Effective recruitment and selection processes. Scientific recruitment

and selection should be conducted to hire the right persons for the
right jobs; placement should be carried out to ensure that
individuals are matched with jobs in line with their experience and
qualifications.

ii) Training and Development. The management should provide their

employees with adequate training and development programmes
to improve their efficiency. This should reduce poor performance,
resulting in a reduction in labour costs.

iii) Retrenchment/Downsizing. Most organisations are trying to

restructure by cutting down the size of their labour force in order to
reduce the cost of labour and improve their profit margin. This is
due to the recognition that labour cost contributes the greatest
amount to the cost structures of organisations. Layoffs or
redundancies may therefore be carried out due to poor business
performance. Layoffs of employees may be temporary or
permanent.

iv) Discharge or dismissal. This action may be taken to stop

employment of less productive workers by discharging or dismissing
them. As a result, the labour costs will reduce.

v) Improving work equipment and tools. Outmoded equipment and

tools may contribute to labour inefficiencies and therefore high cost
of production. Improvement on equipment and tools at the
workplace may therefore reduce inefficiencies associated with
working using such equipment. An organisation may also install new
technology in order to reduce the labour cost.

vi) Training on effective use of time. Labour costs resulting from poor
time management may be reduced by training employees on
effective use of time. For instance reporting to work, reporting for

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 meetings, monitoring production activities etc requires effective
time management.

vii) Improving organisational structures, Job design and job description.

Efficient organisational structures, job design and job description
may reduce labour costs associated with inefficiency of such
structures. Poor organisational design may affect coordination and
control.

viii) Improving physical work environments and well-being of

employees. This will reduce the stress in the work environment and
lead to improvement in productivity and reduction in the labour
costs.

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 TOPIC 2: JOB ANALYSIS AN INTRODUCTION.

At the end of this topic, the trainee should be able to:-

 Explain the meaning and purpose for job analysis

 Discuss the procedure for carrying out job analysis
 Carry out a job analysis

Definition
A job is a collection of tasks assigned to a position in an organization.
Job analysis is the term used to describe a process of examining jobs in
order to identify their main features, in particular the duties they fulfil,
the results they expect to achieve, the major tasks undertaken and the
job’s relationships with other jobs in the organizational hierarchy.

Job analysis is the process by which a description of a job is compiled.

Job analysis is the process of determining and reporting pertinent
information relating to the nature of a specific job. It is the
determination of the tasks which comprise the job and of the skills,
knowledge, abilities and responsibilities required of the holder for
successful job performance.

Job analysis is the process of collecting, analysing and setting out

information about the content of jobs in order to provide the basis for a
job description and data for recruitment, training, job evaluation and
performance management. Job analysis concentrates on what
holders are expected to do.

Job analysis is the cornerstone of all human resource functions. Data

obtained from job analysis produces the following information about a
job:

 Overall purpose – why the job exists, and in essence, what the
jobholder is expected to contribute.
 Content – the nature and scope of the jobs in terms of the tasks
and operations to be performed and duties to be carried out i.e.
the processes of converting inputs (knowledge, skills and abilities)
into outputs (results).
 Accountabilities – the results or outputs for which the jobholder is
accountable.
 Performance criteria – the criteria, measures or indicators that
enable an assessment to be carried out to ascertain the degree
to which the job is being performed satisfactorily.

MUCHEL’LE/EMPLOYEE RESOURCING
  Responsibilities – the level of responsibility the job holder has to
exercise by reference to the scope and input of the job; the
amount of discretion allowed to make decisions; the difficulty;
scale, variety and complexity of the problems to be solved.
 Organizational factors – the reporting relationships of the
jobholder, the people reporting directly or indirectly to the
jobholder and the extent to which the jobholder is involved in
team.
 Motivation factors – the particular features of the job that are
likely to motivate or demotivate jobholders.
 Development factors – promotion and career prospects, and the
opportunity to acquire new skills or expertise.
 Environmental factors – working conditions, health & safety
considerations, unsocial hours, mobility and ergonomic factors
relating to the design and use of equipment & workstations.

What Aspects of a Job are analysed.

Job analysis should collect information on the following areas; i.e.
content and context of the job

 Duties and Tasks – The basic unit of a job is the performance of

specific tasks and duties. Information to be collected about
these items may include; frequency, duration, effort, skill,
complexity, equipment, standards etc.
 Environment - This may have a significant impact on the physical
requirements to be able to perform a job. The work offensive
odours and temperature extremes. There may be definite risks to
the jobholder such as noxious fumes, radioactive substances,
hostile and aggressive people and dangerous explosives.
 Tools and Equipment- some duties and tasks are performed
using specific equipment and tools. Equipment may include
protective clothing. These items need to be specified in a job
analysis.
 Relationships - Supervision given and received relationships with
internal or external people.
 Requirements - The knowledge’s, skills and abilities (KSA’s)
required performing the job. While and incumbent may have
higher KSA’s than those required for the job, a job analysis
typically only states the minimum requirements to perform the
job.

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 Basic Terminology
The simplest unit of work is the micromotion. A micromotion involves a
very elementary movement such as reaching, grasping, positioning or
releasing an object. An aggregation of two or more micromotions
forms an element. An element is a complete entity such as picking up,
transporting and positioning an item. A group of working elements
makes up a work task. Related tasks comprise the duties of a job.
Duties when combined with responsibilities (obligations to be
performed) define a position. A group of positions that are identical
with respect to their major tasks and responsibilities form a job.

A job may be held by more than one person whereas a position

cannot.

Products of Job Analysis

Job analysis involves not only analysing job content but also reporting
the results of the analysis. These results are normally presented in the
form of a job description and a job specification.

A job description concentrates on describing the job as it is currently

being performed. It explains, in written form, what the job is called,
what is to be done, where it is to be done and how it is to be done.
Most job descriptions contain sections that include; the job name, a
brief summary description of the job a listing of job duties and
responsibilities and an explanation of organizational relationships
pertinent to the job.

A job specification concentrates on the characteristics needed to

perform the job. It describes the competency, educational and
experience qualifications the incumbent must possess to perform the
job.

Uses of Job Analysis Information

As earlier indicated job analysis information is used in the formulation of
job description and specifications. The information is the basis for a
number of HR activities. These activities include:-

i. Job definition: A job analysis results in a description of the duties and

responsibilities of the job. Such a description is useful to the current
jobholders and their supervisors, as well as to prospective
employees. The jobholders can get a clear idea of their main
responsibilities from a job description.
ii. Job Redesign: A job analysis often indicates when a job needs to be
redesigned.

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 iii. Recruitment: Job analysis clarifies posts for which new recruits are
sought. A job analysis not only identifies the job requirements but
also outlines the skills needed to perform the job. This information
helps to identify the type of people to be recruited.
iv. Selection and Placement: Selection seeks to match an individual
with a job. For this to succeed the job and its requirements must be
clearly and precisely known. Job analysis produces job descriptions,
which can provide essential evidence for selection interviewers.
v. Orientation: Effective job orientation cannot be accomplished
without a clear understanding of the job requirements. The duties
and responsibilities of a job must be clearly defined before a new
employee can be taught how to perform the job.
vi. Training: Whether or not a current or potential jobholder needs
additional training can be decided only after specific requirements
of the job have been determined through a job analysis. Also, the
establishment of training objectives is dependent on a job analysis.
Another training-related use of job analysis is to help determine
whether a problem is occurring because of a training need or
because of some other reason.
vii. Career Counselling: managers and HR specialists are in a much
better position to counsel employees about their careers when they
have a complete understanding of the different jobs in the
organization. Employees can better appreciate their career options
when they understand the exact requirements of other jobs.
viii. Employee Safety: A thorough job analysis often uncovers unsafe
practices and/or environmental conditions associated with a job.
Focusing precisely on how a job is done usually uncovers any unsafe
procedures.
ix. Performance Appraisal: The objective of performance appraisal is to
evaluate an individual employee’s performance on a job. A
prerequisite is a thorough understanding of exactly what the
employee is supposed to do. Job analysis provides the basic
material on which performance assessment can be made.
x. Compensation: A proper job analysis helps to ensure that
employees receive fair compensation for their jobs. Job analyses
help establish the worth of a job relative to other jobs and enables
the employer determine an equitable wage.

The benefits just described are directed at management, and

especially towards line management. There are also benefits to
individuals from job analysis:

 They can be given a clear idea of their main responsibilities

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  They are provided with a basic for arguing for changes or
improvements in their job (e.g. job redesign)
 They are provided relevant information in respect of any appraisal
they may have.
 They have an opportunity to participate in setting their own short-
term targets or objectives

When performing a job analysis, the job and its requirements (as
opposed to the characteristics of the person currently holding the job)
are studied.

JOB ANALYSIS METHODS

Several methods are available for conducting a job analysis.

Choice of Method
In the selection of a method of job analysis, the criteria for choice are
the purpose for which it will be used, its effectiveness in obtaining the
data required, the degree of expertise required to conduct the analysis
and the resources and amount of time available for the analysis
programme. The following are the most important methods, which
may be used in job analysis; four of the most frequent used methods
first.

 Observation
 Interviews
 Questionnaires
 Functional job analysis
 Materials of work
 Previous studies
 Do-it-yourself
 Work diaries/worklogs
 Review of job classification systems
 Expert panels
 Checklist
 Task inventories
 Hierarchical task analysis
 Self-description
In your own opinion what are the likely repercussions to an organisation that does not conduct
job analysis?

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JOB ANALYSIS METHOD 1: INTERVIEWING

The interview method requires that the person conducting the job
analysis meets with and interviews the jobholder, manager or
supervisor. To obtain the full flavour of a job, it is necessary to interview
jobholders and check the findings with their managers or team leaders.
Interviews can be held on the job site, and may be either structured or
unstructured.

Unstructured interviews have no definite or pre-planned format; the

format develops as the interview unfolds. A structured interview follows
a predesigned format. Structured interviews have the advantage of
ensuring that all pertinent aspects of the job are covered. Also they
make it easier to compare information obtained from different people
holding the same job.

A major drawback to the interview method is it can be time consuming

– planning and conducting the interview. Also inaccurate information
may be collected due to bias. If the purpose of interview is not clear,
the worker may provide information to protect his won interest.

The interview method is flexible and can provide in depth information

and is easy to organize and prepare. A disadvantage may be seen in
unstructured interviews where the information collected is not easy to
analyse.

Interview with the Job-Holder

This is always necessary but difficulties always do occur, largely
because the worker may be suspicious of the job analysis. He may
exaggerate the importance of the job or occasionally try to make it
seem unimportant. The main problems with such interviews are: -

 The workers attitude may influence his account of the job.

 The employee may, even if co-operative, forget some details of the
job only remember the most recent events
 The employee may not be able to express himself clearly
 The employee may, even if co-operative, forget some details of the
job & only remember the most recent events
 The employee may not be able to express himself clearly
Interview with the supervisor
This is quite inevitable, but its values vary due to the following:-
 Supervisor may be out of touch with details of the job
21
 Some have never performed the job themselves
 Some allow their description of the job to be influenced by their
opinion towards the jobholder.
 They may exaggerate the duties& responsibilities of the job in order
to increase their own performance.

Interview Questions
These may cover such aspects as:-
 Amount of supervision received and discretion allowed in making
decisions
 Typical problems to be solved and guidance available to solve the
problems
 Relative difficulty of the tasks performed
 Qualifications and skills required to carry out the work
Conducting the Interview
 Have questions arranged in a logical sequence to help interviewees
to order their thoughts about the job.
 Probe as necessary to establish what people do
 Ensure jobholders are not allowed to get away with vague of
inflated descriptions of their work
 Ensure answers contain only relevant data
 Obtain a clear statement from the jobholder about the amount &
level of decision-making allowed for the job.
 Avoid asking leading questions that make the expected answers
obvious
 Allow the jobholder ample time & opportunity to talk by creating an
atmosphere of trust.

Checking Information
It is always advisable to check the information provided by jobholders
with the managers or team leaders. To get systematic information from
several jobholders, a checklist is necessary. The aim is to structure the
job analysis interview in line with predetermined headings.

In interviewing several jobholders for the same job, information from

different interviews, can be:

i. Hard to bring together

ii. Have a potential for interviewer bias
iii. Certain areas of the work may fail to be picked up
iv. An interview may stress one area & neglect others

22
 v. There may be problems in interpretation and analysis with the
possibility of distorted impressions
vi. Consider subjectivity of the data captured
vii. Interviewers need skills in communication & must be trained

Advantage: Allows the incumbent to describe tasks and duties that are
not observable

JOB ANALYSIS METHOD II: OBSERVATION

Direct observation of incumbents performing their jobs enables the

trained job analyst to obtain first hand knowledge and information
about the job being analysed. Observation method is suited for jobs in
which the workers behaviours are: -

 Observable involving some degree of movement on the part of the

jobholder.
 Job tasks are short in duration allowing for many observations to be
made in a short period of time or a significant part of the job analyst
can learn information about the job through observation.

Jobs in which the observation method is successful include: -

 Machine operator/adjuster
 Construction worker
 Police officer/patrol officer
 Flight attendant
 Bus driver
 House keeper/janitor
 Skilled crafts worker

The observation method is derived from the techniques of work-study.

The method is appropriate for situations where a relatively small
number of key jobs need to be analysed in depth.

Time and Motion study are the most frequently used observation
methods. Motion or methods study involves determining the most
efficient way to do a task or job. It involves studying the motions and
movements necessary for performing a task or job and then designing
the most efficient methods for putting those motions and movements
together.

Time study is the analysis of a job or task to determine the elements of

work required performing it, the order in which these elements occur
and the times required to perform them effectively.
23
Work sampling is a type of observation method based on taking
statistical samples of job actions throughout the workday. By taking an
adequate number of samples, inferences can be drawn about the
requirements and demands of the job.

Observation is used to analyse jobs that are relatively simple and

straightforward. It can be used independently or in conjunction with
other methods of analysis. Information includes; what was done, how it
was done, how long it took, what the job environment was like, and
what equipment was used.

Advantages
 Simple to use
 Can be used effectively for manual repetitive tasks

Disadvantages
 A skilled worker can make a job look easy
 An experienced worker can make a job look difficult
 Mental processes are not revealed
 Some manual work is too fast or intricate to be observed
accurately
 Not suitable for highly skilled annual work where the actions are
too speedy to observe accurately
 Observer must be well trained to know what to look for & record

JOB ANALYSIS: METHOD 3: QUESTIONNAIRE

This method involves developing structured or semi-structured

questionnaires on different aspects of job-related tasks and behaviour
such as coordinating, negotiating, manual and mental processes.
They are usually completed by jobholders and approved by the
jobholder’s manager or team leader.

The method can be used to obtain information from a large number of

employees in a relatively short time period. Questionnaires are used
when a large input is needed and time and cost are limiting factors.

Questionnaire design is a difficult and time-consuming task. Questions

need to be correct and unambiguous; otherwise the quality of
information obtained will fall short of expectation. To get quality
answers, all the questionnaires must be pre-test.

The accuracy of the results depends on the willingness and ability of

jobholders to complete questionnaires. Many people find t difficult to
24
express themselves in writing. Some jobholders may be suspicious of
the questionnaire, not understand the questions and feel restricted by
it. Designing a questionnaire is expensive, since it needs skilled persons
to do it.

Examples of Questionnaires
Some of the standard questionnaires used include: -

 Comprehensive Occupational Data Analysis Programmes

(CODAP)
 Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)
 Functional Job Analysis (FJA)
 Management Position Description Questionnaire (MPDQ)
 Supervisory Task Description Questionnaire (STDQ)
The questionnaire method inhibits direct rapport between analyst and
respondent and the respondent’s cooperation and motivation are not
guaranteed due to impersonal approach.

JOB ANALYSIS METHOD 4: CHECKLISTS AND INVENTORIES

A checklist for completion by jobholders is similar to a questionnaire but

response requires fewer subjective judgments and tends to be of the
YES and NO variety.

Checklists to be thoroughly prepared and a field study is essential to

ensure the responses sought are adequate and make sense.
Checklists can be used only where a large number of jobholders exist.

Rating scales or inventories are an improvement of the checklist. They

present a jobholder with a list of activities and require him to rate them
accordingly to time spent on them and importance.

JOB ANALYSIS METHOD 5: MATERIALS OF WORK

A study of the tools, working materials, machines, documents,

communication, media etc frequently provides a useful check on
information obtained in other ways, and may suggest questions to be
asked.

25
JOB ANALYSIS METHOD 6: PREVIOUS STUDIES

Work study records, training manuals and accident reports are

sometimes available and can be brought up to date or added to
other information. His approach utilizes existing documentation as a
rich source of information about jobs in the structure. Typical
documents studies include; organization charts, budget statements,
letters of appointment and statement of objectives for units. This
particular approach is more likely in an organization planning or job
redesigned exercise.

JOB ANALYSIS METHOD 7: CRITICAL INCIDENTS

This method seeks to distinguish between effective or ineffective

behaviours of the workers in the job. Job holders are requested to
describe several incidents based on their past experience on a given
job. The incidents collected are analysed and categorized. The end
result draws a fairly clear picture of actual job requirements.

The method is time consuming and requires high level of skill, from the
analyst.

JOB ANALYSIS METHOD 8: DO-IT-YOURSELF

In some jobs it is feasible for the analyst to spend some time actually
performing the work personally. The analyst should then be careful not
to form too subjective an impression.

JOB ANALYSIS METHOD 9: WORK DIARIES & LOGS

This approach requires jobholders to analyse their own jobs by keeping

diaries or logs of their activities.

These can be used by the analyst as the basic material for a job
description. The jobholders need guidance on how to keep the diaries
and logs.

Diaries and logs are best used for managerial jobs, which are complex
and where jobholders have the analytical skills required. The diaries
and logs kept are analysed to obtain a list of duties and their
frequency.

26
Diaries and log are most useful for managerial jobs but they make
great demands on jobholders and can be difficult to analyse. At times,
the jobholder forgets to complete the diary of log on time and
recollection of a days work may not be reliable.

JOB ANALYSIS METHOD 10: HIERARCHICAL TASKS ANALYSIS

This breaks down jobs or areas of work into a hierarchical set of tasks,
sub-tasks and plans. Tasks are defined in terms of objectives or end
products and the plan needed to achieve the objective is also
analysed. The process starts with an analysis of the overall task. This is
then subjected to further analysis in order to develop a hierarchy of
sub-plans needed to achieve them. The method involves: -

 Using verbs to describe what has been done.

 Defining performance standards- desired level of performance
 Listing the conditions associated with task performance
This method is used for process or manufacturing jobs.

JOB ANALYSIS 11: SELF – DESCRIPTION

Jobholders can be asked to analyse their own jobs and prepare job
descriptions. This saves time for the analysts. But jobholders do not
always find it easy to describe their jobs objectively. The method is
helpful to produce a model job description to illustrate the format
required.

It is the quickest and most economic form of job analysis. But it relies on
the often-limited ability of people to describe their own jobs. It is
therefore necessary to offer guidance in the form of questionnaires and
checklists.

THE WRITING-UP PROCESS

Clearly job analysis is a sensitive issue. Certain steps need to be taken

to ensure it is conducted effectively.

 Decide aims and objectives of the analysis e.g. job evaluation,

organization planning etc
 Submit outline plan to senior management
27
  Gain support of senior management
 Discuss plan with line managers and specialists and modify if
necessary.
 Seek co-operation of employee representatives
 Draw up detailed plan with time table
 Select and train job analysts, if applicable.
 Notify all staff
 Implement plot stage
 Review results, discuss any problems
 Proceed with final plan
 Review results
Once the initial information has been collected, the person responsible
for producing a realistic and readable job description now has his work
cut out. The steps towards the production of a job description are as
shown in the following sequence.

 Assemble the key facts about he job, excluding irrelevant or

unclear pieces of information
 Sort the key facts into clusters of related issues or responsibility
areas
 Commence writing up the initial sections of the job description
(Title, relationships etc)
 Write up the main responsibilities as they appear to the analyst
 Then draft out a statement of the overall purpose of the job
 Complete rest of description, focusing on the need for accuracy,
clarity and conciseness
 Review the first draft to see if it has completeness about it – that it
sounds true.
 Said a draft to the job-holder, and/or his senior manager for
perusal and comment
 Make alterations only if they are judged to be fair to the facts.
 Draw up a final version and submit to the senior person
concerned in the exercise.

 TASK
1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of structured and unstructured
interviews in job analysis.
2. What are some of the disadvantages of the work dairies and logs?

28
PREPARATION OF A JOB DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATION

JOB DESCRIPTIONS

These are derived from job analysis. They provide basic information
about the job under the headings of the job title, reporting
relationships, overall purpose and principle accountabilities or main
tasks or duties. A job description is a broad statement of the purpose,
scope, duties and responsibilities of a particular job.

It is customary for a job description to be written up son as to cover the

following features of the job:

 Job title
 Immediate supervisor
 Relationship with other jobs
 Overall purpose of job
 Main duties/ responsibilities (key tasks)
 Authority granted
 Resources available to job holder
 Principle qualifications required for the job
 Location
 Date of analysis
 Numbers supervised
Job description can be used: -

For organizational, recruitment and performance management

purpose.
Here it can be used to: -

 Define the place of the job in the organisation and to clarify for
job holder and others
 Provide the information required to produce person
specifications for recruitment and to inform applicants about the
job
 Be the basis for the contact of employment
 Provide the framework for setting objectives for performance
management.
 Be the basis for job evaluation and grading jobs
29
Job description for job evaluation purposes. Such a JD should contain
the information included in an organizational description as well as
factor analysis of the job. Factor analysis describes the incidence of
reach job evaluation factor – knowledge and skills, responsibility,
decisions, complexity and contacts.

Job description for training purposes. Such should be based on the

format for an organizational job description. This should include an
analysis of the attributes and competences used in the job.

JOB SPECIFICATION

A job specification is a detailed statement of the physical and mental

activities involved in the job and hen relevant, of social and physical
environmental matters. The specification is usually expressed in terms of
behaviour.

A job specification concentrates on the characteristics needed to

perform the job. It describes the competency, educational and
experience qualifications the incumbent must possess to perform the
job.

Uses of job specifications

 For personnel functions a detailed account of the job is
necessary. The most important of these are for: -
 Selection
 Promotion
 Appraisal
 Setting performance standards
 Job evaluation
 Training

There is no standard layout or a set of headings for a job specification;

it s found that variations are necessary according to the type of work
e.g. manual or non-manual, and to the organisation. In general, a job
description must emphasize activities and behaviour.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS WITH JOB ANALYSIS

In analysis jobs, certain problems can occur. Some of the problems

stem from natural human behaviour, others, from the natural of the job
analysis process.
30
 Some problems encountered include: -

i. Top management support missing. To management should make it

clear to all employees that their full and honest participation is
needed. Such a message is at times not communicated.
ii. Only a single means and source are used for gathering data. All too
often an analysis process depends on only one of the many
available methods, when a combination of methods might provide
better data.
iii. The supervisor and the jobholder do not participate in the design of
job analysis. Too many analyses are a one-man show. The job holder
and his supervisor should be involved early in the planning of the
project
iv. No training or motivation exists for jobholders. Jobholders are the
most important sources of information for analysis yet they are
seldom trained or prepared to generate quality data. Some are
rarely made aware of the importance of the data and almost never
rewarded for providing good information.
v. Employees are not allowed sufficient time to complete the analysis.
Usually companies conduct analysis as if it was a crash programme
and employees are not given sufficient time to do a thorough job
analysis.
vi. Activities may be distorted. Without proper training and supervision,
employees may submit distorted data. Those being watched may
speed up if they are made aware.
vii. There is a failure to critique the job. Many analyses just report what
the jobholder currently does. Yet, the job should be critiqued to
determine whether it is being done correctly or whether
improvements can be made.

31
 TOPIC 3: HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING (HRP)

Specific Objectives

At the end of this topic, the trainee should be able to:-

 Discuss the factors to consider in determining human resources

requirements.
 Apply the results of human resource planning
 Carry out accounting and auditing of human resources

INTRODUCTION & DEFINITION

Human resource planning (HRP) is an attempt to forecast how many

and what kind of employees will be required in the future, and to what
extent this demand is likely to be met. It involves the comparison of an
organization’s current human resources with likely future needs and
consequently the establishment of programmes for hiring, training,
redeploying and possible discarding employees. Effective HRP should
result in the right people doing the right things in the right place at
precisely the right time.

HRP is seen as a strategy for the acquisition, utilization improvement

and retention of an enterprise’s human resources. HRP is therefore a
strategic process.

HRP is the process for ensuring that the HR requirements of an

organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those
requirements. It addresses HR needs in both qualitative and
quantitative terms i.e., how many people and what sort of people.

HRP is also known as workforce planning or personnel planning. HRP is

the process of matching the supply of people – internally (existing
employees) – and externally (those to be hired or searched for) – with
the openings the organization expects to have over a given period
time frame.

The context of HRP is dominated by:-

 The state of demand for the organization’s goods or services
 The supply of people in the labour market
 The time-scale involved.

32
THE LABOUR MARKET

This is basically seen as either, the external labour market or the internal
labour market. The external labour market consists of the local,
regional, national and international labour markets. The internal labour
market is the market for labour within firms – the stocks available and
the flow of people within the firm from entry, through various stages of
their career, until they leave.

The internal labour market can be the main source of labour through
policies of: -

 Development
 Training
 Promotion
 Career planning
 Management succession

Purpose of HRP
 HRP can help management in making decisions in the following
areas:
 Recruitment
 Avoidance of redundancies
 Training-numbers and categories
 Management development
 Estimates of labour costs
 Productivity bargaining
 Accommodation requirements

Importance of HRP
o To avoid organizations carry out their activities
o To replace personnel, who are no longer use or are old.
o To fill vacancies arising from labour turnover.
o To meet the needs of the expansion programmes which may
include the increase in demand for goods and services of the
organization.
o To meet the challenges f new and changing technologies
o To identify areas of surplus personnel or areas in which there is
shortage of personnel.
o Plan for labour costs – as a basis for drawing up HR budgets.

33
DETERMINATION OF HR REQUIREMENTS

A critical decision facing organizations before procurement is done is

the determination of the number and type of personnel that should be
provided to the organization. HRP seeks to ensure that a certain
desired number of people with the correct skills will be available at
some specified time in future.

The determination of HR requirements therefore involves: -

i. HR Demand forecasting
ii. HR supply forecasting
iii. HR actions

HUMAN RESOURCE DEMAND FORECASTING

Demand forecasting is the process of estimating the future numbers of

people required and the likely skills and competence they will need.
Demand forecasting may be determined by taking into consideration:

o Long range factors

o Short range factors

LONG RANGE FACTORS

Though specific numbers are difficult to develop in forecasts,

encompassing 2-5 years or more, those responsible for HRP, must
consider the following: -

o The firms long range business plans

o Demographic trends
o Economic factors
o Technological trends
o Social trends

1. The firms Long Range Business Plans

Such plans may be to expand the firms operations by moving into new
product lines. This would require estimates of the needed number of
employees and skills of the anticipated growth.

If plans call for more efforts in the international market in future, then
decisions must be made regarding the utilization of the host country’s
nationals. Long-range plans may also call for reduction in labour due
34
to elimination or product LINES OR PLANTS. Relocation of a company
may also have HRP implications.

2. Demographic trends
Demographic trends in a country can determine future demand
patterns of labour by organizations. Fluctuations in population affect
the labour supply available in various categories – education, size, age
characteristics, gender characteristics, diseases, birth & death rates.

3. Economic Trends
Movement from prosperity to recession and back to prosperity poses
considerable problems for HR Managers. During prosperity demand for
jobs by firms is likely to increase. The reverse happens during a
recession.

4. Technological Trends
Advances in technology have definite effect on the nature and
mixture of jobs available. For instance, advances in I.T, resulted in a
decrease in the number of bookkeepers and an increase in demand
for computer programmers. It has been noted that the current level of
technology for building robots will enable the replacement of 2/3 of
the factory workforce.

5. Social Trends
Changes in custom and civil rights would influence labour projections.
Mobility of personnel due to family commitments also affects demand
for labour.

SHORT RANGE FACTORS

The short factors to be considered in demand forecasting include:-

o Production schedules/budgets.
o Affirmative action plans.
o Relocation/plant closings.

1. Production Schedules/Budgets
Specific sales forecasts for the coming year must be translated into a
work programme for the various sections of an enterprise. Some plans
must be made concerning the amount of work that each segment of
the organization is expected to accomplish during some coming
period.

35
2. Affirmative Action Planning
An organization may be forced to hire certain categories of employees
– minority tribes or females. This must be reflected in the HRP.

3. Relocation/Plant Closings
Recession in the economy may lead to temporary closures or
relocations. This may lead to reduction in the labour force. Poor
company development and expansion strategy also may lead to
relocations and closures.

HOW TO FORECAST PERSONNEL NEEDS

There are several things to consider when forecasting personnel needs.

The expected demand for your product or service is paramount. These
sales are generally estimated first. Then the staff required to achieve
this volume of output is estimated. Other things to consider are;

 Projected turnover – resignations/terminations

 Quality and skills of your employees – in relation to the changing
needs of the organization
 Decisions to upgrade the quality of products or services that enter
into the market.
 Technological and other changes resulting in increased
productivity.
 The financial resources available to the department

Whichever method one uses, managerial judgment will play a big role.
Judgment is thus needed to modify the forecast based on factors –
such as projected turnover, or a desire to enter new markets.

METHODS OF LABOUR DEMAND FORECASTING

In a particular situation the following factors in addition to other factors

may affect future labour demand:-

 Organizational goals and plans

 Changes in productivity
 Changes in organizational structure or job design

The above factors are known as Leading Indicators. The task in

forecasting labour demand is;

First to obtain direction in which the leading indicators are moving and
36
 Second, to assess the likely effects of these events on the number and
type of employees that will be needed by the organization.

The methods of demand forecasting involve the following 4 steps: -

i. Select from among the leading indictors, those most likely to be

relevant in the particular situation at hand.
ii. Establish the nature of historical relationships between the leading
indicators selected and the labour demand
iii. Obtain forecasts or projections of the leading indicators
iv. Forecast demand (make estimates using data from steps (ii) & (iii).
This helps identify the gap between the current and needed
workforce.

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR DEMAND FORECASTING

The following are the basic demand forecasting methods for estimating
the numbers of people required: -

i) Managerial judgment
ii) Ratio-trend analysis
iii) Work-study techniques
iv) Modelling
v) Delphi technique
vi) Time series analysis
vii) Scatter plot

1. MANAGERIAL JUDGEMENT
Under the managerial estimates method, managers make estimates of
future staff needs based primarily on past experience. These estimates
can be made by top-level managers and passed on to other
managers. The managers simply, sit, think about their future workloads,
and decide how many people they need. It may be a top-down or
bottom-up process. The forecasts made one man reviewed and
agreed with departmental managers.

TASK

Discuss the factors on the basis of which managers can be able to make judgment
about personnel needs.

37
The best way to managerial estimates is by se of both top-down and
bottom-up processes. The two forecasts are reviewed by a HR
planning committee and approved. This is known as the right-angle
method.

2. RATIO-TREND ANALYSIS
This is carried out by studying past ratios between the number of direct
workers and indirect workers (support) in a manufacturing plant and
forecasting future ratios. The number of direct workers needed can be
used to determine the number of indirect workers needed.

This means making forecast based on the ratio between (i) Same
causal factor (e.g. sales volume) and ii) number of employees
required. Ratio analysis assumes that productivity remains about the
same.

3. WORK STUDY TECHNIQUES

These can be used when it is possible to apply work measurement to
calculate how long operations should take and the number of people
required. This starts from a company’s production budget. Work-study
techniques for direct workers can be combined with ratio-trend
analysis to calculate the number of indirect workers needed.

4. MODELLING
Mathematical modelling techniques using computers and
spreadsheets can help in the preparation of demand and supply
forecasts.

Employers also use computer programs to forecast personnel

requirements. Typically data needed include direct labour hours
needed to produce one unit of the product and three sales projections
– minimum, maximum and probable. Based on such data a typical
programme generates figures on average staff levels required to meet
production demands, as well as separate computerized forecasts for
direct labour and indirect staff, plus the exempt staff. Method also
known as modelling.

TASK
Describe the process of demand forecasting using the work study technique.

38
Examples of statistical modelling techniques.

5. TIME SERIES & ANALYSIS

Past staffing levels (instead of workload indicators) are sued to project
future HR requirements. Past staffing levels are examined to isolate
seasonal and cyclical variations, long-term trends and random
movements. Long-term trends are then extrapolated or projected.

Here one studies a company’s employment level over the last 5 years
or so to predict future needs. Trend analysis is valuable as an initial
estimate, but employment levels rarely depend solely on the passage
of time.

6. PRODUCTIVITY RATIO’S
Historical data are used to examine past levels of a productivity index.

P = Workload
Number of people

Where constant, or systematic, relationships are found human resource

requirements could be computed by dividing predicted workloads by
P.

7. REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Past levels of various workload indicators, such as sales, production
levels and value added are examined for statistical relationships with
staffing levels. Where sufficiently strong relationships are found, a
regression model is derived. Forecasted levels of the related indicator
are entered into the resulting model and used to calculate the
associated level of HR requirements.

8. DELPHI TECHNIQUE
With this method, each member of a panel of experts makes an
independent estimate of what the future demand will be, along with
any underlying assumptions. An intermediary then presents each
experts forecast and assumptions to the others and allows the experts
to revise their positions if they desire. This continues until some
consensus is reached.

THE SCATTER PLOT.

This can be used to determine whether two factors – a measure of
business activity and the staff levels are related. If they are, then one
can forecast the measure of business activity he should be able to get
and also estimate the HR requirements.

39
 TASKS

 What is the role of the HR Personnel in the HR planning process?

 List the common pitfalls in HR planning.

ADVANTAGES OF HRP

i) Equips the organization to cope with the HR consequences of

changed circumstances.
ii) May enable a firm to discover new and improved ways of
managing human resources.
iii) Helps create and develop employee training and management
succession programmes.
iv) Labour shortfalls and surpluses may be avoided.
v) May enable a company foresee some of the consequences amid
needs of managing change.
vi) Compels management to examine the strengths and weaknesses of
its labour force and personnel policies.
vii) Duplication of effort among employees may be avoided.
viii) Improves co-ordination and integration of workers efforts.
ix) Assists in career management and management development
programmes.

40
HR LABOUR SUPPLY FORECASTING AND THE HR ACTIONS

 Reminder

HRP entails the following five areas of activity: -

1. Demand forecasting
2. Supply forecasting
3. Determining the HR requirements
4. Action planning
5. Monitoring and Control

In assessing the supply of labour available to the organization there are

tow major areas to be reviewed.

i) The existing workforce (the internal labour market)

ii) The supply of potential employees (the external labour market)

Supply forecasting measures the number of people likely to be

available from within and from outside the organization, having
allowed for absenteeism, internal movements and promotions,
wastage and changes in hours and other conditions of work.

The supply analysis covers: -

 Existing human resources

 Potential losses to existing resources through employee wastage
 Potential changes to existing resources through internal promotions
 Effect of changing conditions of work and absenteeism
 Sources of supply from within the organization
 Sources of supply from outside the organization – national and local
labour markets

A typical analysis of supply will focus on the following: -

 Existing staff:
Numbers, categories, skills, performance, flexibility, promotability

 Potential staff:
Location, categories, skills, trainability, attitudes and competition

 Less Leavers:
Retirement, wastage rates, redundancies and dismissals
41
Manpower Flows in an Organization
Promotions out

Transfers

Transfers in Retirement

Voluntary
retirement

Recruits in
Redundancy
Discharge/Dismissal/Terminatio
n

Resignations

Promotions in

ANALYZING EXISTING HUMAN RESOURCES

The basic analysis should classify employees by function or

department, occupation, level of skill and status. The aim is to identify
“resource centres” consisting of broadly homogeneous groups from
which forecasts of supply need t be made.

A detailed analysis is needed to provide inventories of skills and

potential, and knowledge of the number of promotable people
available. An analysis of employees by age helps to identify problems
arising from a sudden rush of retirements, a block in promotion
prospects or a preponderance of older employees.

Length of service analysis will provide survival rates, which are a

necessary tool for use by planners in predicting future resources.

The analysis of current resources should look at the existing ratios

between different categories of employees – mangers and tam
leaders, skilled to semi-skilled, direct to indirect, office staff to
42
production. Recent movements in these ratios should be studies to
provide guidance on trends and to highlight areas where raid changes
may result in supply problems.

1. Labour Turnover or Wastage

A common index of labour performance is labour turnover. It provides
information about the ratio of leavers to the average numbers
employed during the course of a year. It is usually examined as: -

Number of Employees leaving during the year x 100

Average numbers employed during the year

A turnover rate of 25% would be considered satisfactory, while a

turnover rate of 100% is considered a major problem.

The above index however has some disadvantages; it does not

indicate in which areas of the organization the rate of leavers is high; it
does not identify the length of service of the leavers; it does not
indicate any sudden changes in the numbers employed from one year
to the next.

Some organizations, in addition to the labour index, make use of a

labour stability index which links the leaving rate with length of service.

Number of leavers with more than one years service x 100

Number employed one year ago

The result of the measure of performance is to identify the extent to

which new recruits leave, rather than longer serving employees.

Employee turnover should be analysed in order to forecast future losses

and to identify the reasons for people leaving the organization.

The stability index provides an indication of the tendency for longer-

service employees to remain with the company – the degree to which
there is continuity of employment. The index will however not show the
vastly different situations that exist in a company or department with a
high proportion of long-serving employees in comparison with one
where the majority of employees are short service.

The shortcomings of the stability index may be partly overcome if an

analysis is also made of the average length of service of people who
leave - length of service analysis.

43
Period 1 Jan – 31 Dec

Category Less than 6 to 12 1 to 2 3 to 5 6 to 10

6 months Months Years Years Years
Unskilled
Skilled
Clerical
Supervision
Management
* Leavers by length of service

If required such an analysis could be further refined to show leavers by

department or unit as well as by length of service.

Another method of analysing turnover is the survival rate. This is the

proportion of employees who are engaged within a certain period
who remain with the organization after so many months or years of
service. Thus, an analysis of trainees who have completed training
might show that after 2 years, 10 of the original cohort of 20 were still
with the company - a survival rate of 50%. HR planners must allow for
half the recruits in any one-year to be lost over the next couple of
years, unless they take care of the factors causing the wastage.

A simpler concept derived from survival rate analysis is that the half –
life index - time taken for a group or cohort of starters to reduce to half
its original size through the wastage process.

LABOUR TURNOVER

Labour turnover is the movement of people into and out of firm. The
term separation is used to denote an employee who leaves for any
reason. Staff turnover has a number of advantages and
disadvantages.

Advantages
 It provides an incentive to recruit fresh staff
 It enables organizations to shed staff more easily when
redundancies are planned (i.e. through natural wastage)
 It opens up promotion channels for longer – serving staff.
 It introduces an element of ‘self-selection’ among new employees,
which may save dismissals at a later date.

44
Disadvantages
 Additional cost of replacement recruitment
 Disruptions to production of gods or services caused by leavers.
 Additional training costs, especially induction and initial job training
 Wasted investment in people
 May lead to difficulties in attracting new staff

Separations and their consequent replacements can be expensive.

The cost of labour turnover increases when employees are more
specialized, more difficult to find and require more training. The cost of
labour turnover is made up of some or all of the following components.

i) Lower production during the learning period

ii) Lost production while the employee is being replaced
iii) Payment to other employees at overtime rates while waiting for
a replacement
iv) Possible diversion of efforts of more highly skilled employees while
waiting for a replacement
v) Cost of recruitment, selection and medical examination
vi) Training costs
vii) Administrative cost of removing from and adding to payroll.

Reducing Labour Turnover

If an employing firm wishes to reduce its labour turnover, because it
considers it excessive, it may take the following action:

 Recalculate: the separation rate for various categories of the firms

employees departments, are groups, occupations to see I turnover
in any of these categories is particularly high; and if so be
investigated.
 Ensure: that selection procedures are adequate; suitable
employees are more likely to stay than the unsuitable.
 Ensure: that the immediate supervisor, by being involved in
selection, feels some responsibility towards a new employee.
 Check: that employees are being fully utilized – some may be
leaving because of boredom or job dissatisfaction.
 Overhaul: the pay structure perhaps using job evaluation.
 Introduce: or improve an induction course.
 Give new employees appropriate training
 Show that prospects in the company are good by promoting from
within wherever possible.
 Ensure that physical working conditions are adequate.

45
ANALYSING THE EFFECTS OF PROMOTIONS & TRANSFERS
The supply forecast should indicate the number of vacancies that will
have to be filled to meet the demand forecast. In a large
organization, persistent patterns or of promotion or transfer may
develop and it may be possible to predict the proportions of
employees in particular categories who are likely to be promoted or
moved in the future by starting with a forecast of the chain reaction
factor, to give a broad indication of the number of displacements that
may occur.

Assessing changes in conditions of work and absenteeism

This assessment should cover factors operating within the firm such as
changes in all the following; normal weekly hours of work, overtime
policies, the length and time of holidays, retirement policy, the policy
for employing part-timers and shift systems. The effect of absenteeism
on the future supply of employees should also be allowed, and trends
in absenteeism should be analysed to trace causes and identify
possible remedial actions.

ANALYSING SOURCES OF SUPPLY

Internal labour market sources include the output from established
schemes or management development programmes and the
reservoirs of skill and potential that already exists within the
organization. But the availability pf people from the local and national
labour markets is also a vital factor when preparing plans.

It is necessary to identify at an early stage any categories of employees

where there might be difficulties in recruiting the numbers required so
that action can be taken in good time to prepare a recruiting
campaign, or to develop training or re-training programmes to convert
available staff to meet the company’s needs.

The factors that can have an important bearing on the supply of

manpower are: -

1. Local Labour Market

 Population densities within reach of the company
 Current and future competition for employees from other employers
 Local unemployment levels
 Traditional pattern of employment locally, and the availability of
people with the required qualifications and skills
 The output from the local educational system and training
establishments.
 The attractiveness of the area as a place to live
46
  The attractiveness of the company as a place to work
 The availability of part-time employees
 Local housing, shopping and transport facilities.

2. National Labour Supply

 Demographic trends in the number of school-leavers and the size of
the working population.
 National demands for special categories of employees – graduates,
professional staff, technologists, technicians, and skilled workers.
 The output of the universities, professional institutions and other
educational and training establishments
 The effect f changing educational patterns
 The impact of national training initiatives
 Impact of government employment regulations
Level of economic activity
Nature of the Government policies
competition on for
labour

Organizations ability to
Wage/Salary levels make full use of the
labour market
New Technology

Trade Union
attitudes Population changes
Education/training
opportunities

Figure: Factors Affecting Nature of External labour Market

TASK
Discuss the specific government activities that have an impact on
the national labour supply.

47
RECONCILING SUPPLY AND DEMAND FOR LABOUR AND THE HR ACTIONS
Upon completion of forecasts of labour and demand and supply the
results must be reconciled before HR actions can be determined and
taken.

Example of reconciliation table

Job category labour demand labour supply gap

interpretation

1 140 137 -3 shortage

2 200 251 +51 surplus
3 300 282 -18 shortage
4 375 282 -93 shortage

HUMAN RESOURCE ACTIONS

Action plans are derived from the broad resourcing strategies and the
more detailed analysis of demand and supply factors. Action pans
should be made in the following areas: -

i) An overall plan as required to deal with shortages arising if there

are demographic pressures
ii) A human resource development plan
iii) A recruitment plan
iv) A retention plan
v) A plan to achieve greater flexibility
vi) A productivity plan
vii) A downsizing plan

1) OVERALL PLAN
Demographic pressures are likely to be experienced even during a
recession as there are still areas where skill shortage exists and these
may multiply in the future. It is, as such, advisable to be prepared to
take a selection of the following steps as part of an overall HR plan.

 Improve methods of identifying the sort of young people the

organisation wants to recruit
 Establishing links with schools and colleges to gain their interest in
the organisation
 Develop career programmes and training packages to attract
young people
 Widening the recruitment net to include, for example, more women
re-entering the labour market
48
 Finding ways of tapping alternative pools of suitable workers e.g.
part time employees
 Adapting working hours and arrangements to the needs of new
employees and those with domestic responsibilities
 Providing more attractive benefit packages e.g. child care facilities
 Developing the talents and making better use of existing employees
 Providing retraining for existing and new employees to develop
different skills
 Making every effort to retain new recruits and existing staff.

2) THE HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The HR development plan will show:

 Number of trainees required and the programme for recruiting and

training them
 Number of existing staff who need training, retraining and the
training programmes required
 The need learning programmes to be developed or the changes to
be made existing programmes and courses
 How the required flow of promotable managers can be maintained

3) THE RECRUITMENT PLAN

This will take account of the flow of trainees or retraining staff and set
out: -

 Numbers and types of employees required to take care of the

deficit
 Likely sources of recruits
 Methods of attracting good candidates training and development
programmes, attractive pay and benefits packages, golden hellos
(money paid up front to recruits), flexible working arrangements,
generous relocation payments, child care facilities and so on.

4) THE RETENTION PLAN

This should be based on why people want to leave. Exit interviews may
provide some information but they can be unreliable – people rarely
give the full reasons why they are leaving. A better method is to have
attitude surveys on a regular basis. A retention plan should address
each of the areas in which lack of commitment and dissatisfaction can
arise. Such areas include: -

a) PAY
Problems arise because of uncompetitive, in equitable or unfair pay
systems. Remedial action may include: -

49
 Review of pay levels
 Job evaluation – to provide equitable grading decisions
 Ensure people understand the link between performance and
reward
 Review performance – related pay schemes – ensure they are fair.
 Adapt payment – by – results systems to ensure that employees are
not penalized when they are engaged only on short runs
 Tailor benefits to individual requirements and preferences
 Involve employees in developing and operating job evaluation and
PRP schemes

b) JOBS
Dissatisfaction arises if jobs are unrewarding in themselves. Job design
should maximize skill variety, task significance, autonomy and
feedback and provide opportunities for learning and growth

c) PERFORMANCE
Unclear responsibilities and performance standards may cause
demotivation. The following actions can be taken. The following
actions can be taken.

 Express performance requirements as had but attainable goals

 Get employees and managers to agree on performance goals and
what should be done to achieve them
 Encourage managers to praise employees for good performance,
give regular performance feedback and discuss performance
problems.

d) Train managers in performance review techniques e.g.

counselling; brief employees on how the performance management
system works and obtain feedback from the workers

e) TRAINING
Lack of proper training may increase resignation s and turnover.
Learning programmes and training schemes should be developed and
introduced which: -

 Give employees the competence and confidence to achieve set

performance standards
 Enhance existing skills and competence
 Help people to acquire new skills and competence – make use of
their abilities, take greater responsibility, variety of tasks and earn
more under skill and competence based pay schemes.

50
 TASKS
- What are the four basic steps in the HRP process?
- What is the role of HR personnel in the HRP process?
- List and explain eight common pitfalls in HRP

f) CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Dissatisfaction with career prospects is a major cause of turnover.
Companies should plan to provide career opportunities by: -
 Providing employees with wider experience
 Introducing more systematic procedures for identifying potential
such as assessment or development centres
 Encourage promotion procedures
 Provide advice and guidance on career paths.

g) COMMITMENT
This can be increased by: -
 Explaining organisations mission, value and strategies
 Commitment to all employees on time
 Provide opportunities for employees to contribute their ides on
improving work systems

h) LACK OF GROUP COHESION

Employees feel isolated and unhappy if they are not part of a cohesive
team.
This can be tackled through: Teamwork, setting up self – managed or
autonomous work groups, Team building

i) DISSATISFACTION AND CONFLICT WITH MANAGERS AND

SUPERVISORS
A common reason for resignations is the feeling that management and
supervisors are not providing leadership, are treating people unfairly or
bullying their staff. This can be solved by: -

 Selecting managers/supervisors with well-developed qualities

 Training in leadership skills, conflict resolution and dealing with
grievances
 Have better grievance handling procedures

j) RECRUITMENT, SELECTION AND PROMOTION

Turnover may result from poor selection or promotion decisions.
Selection and promotion procedures must match the capacities of
individuals and demands of the work they have to do.

51
k) OVER MARKETING
Creating expectations about career development opportunities,
training programs and interesting work and not matching this with
reality may lead directly to dissatisfaction and early resignation. Take
care not to oversell, the firm’s employee development policies.

5. THE FLEXIBILITY PLAN

Such a plan should aim to: -
 Provide for greater operational flexibility
 Improve the utilization of employees skills and capacities
 Help to achieve downsizing smoothly, avoiding compulsory
redundancies
 Increase productivity

A flexibility plan should consider: -

 New arrangements for flexible hours
 Alternatives to full-time permanent staff
 New overtime arrangements
 New shift working arrangements
 Flexible hour arrangements

Alternative to full-time permanent staff includes us of temporary

workers, job sharing, home working and teleworking, subcontracting
and so on.

TASK
What are the advantages of using part time workers, and what are the
disadvantages

6. THE PRODUCTIVITY PLAN

This sets out programmes for improving productivity or reducing
employment costs in such areas as: -
 Improving or streamlining methods, procedures and systems
mechanization, automation or computerization
 Use of financial and non-financial incentives

7. THE DOWNSIZING PLAN

Such a plan should be based on the timing of reductions and forecasts
of the extent to which these can be achieved by natural wastage or
voluntary redundancy. The plan should set out:-

 Number of people who have to go, when and from which

departments
 Arrangements for communicating to the employees and union
52
 The redundancy terms
 Financial inducements
 Arrangements for retraining counselling sessions

The HRP should include budgets; targets and standards clarify

responsibilities for implementation and control and establish reporting
procedures

TASKS:
Identify and discuss some of the alternative activities to retrenchment that a
company may undertake

Reducing the total number of employees, downsizing, can be

undertaken in four basic ways: - layoffs, terminations, early retirement
inducements and voluntary resignation inducements.

A layoff as opposed to a termination, assumes it is likely that the

employee will be recalled at some later date.

Approaches that do not result in employees leaving the organisation

include; reclassification (either a demotion of an employee,
downgrading of job responsibilities or a combination of the two),
transfer and work sharing.

COMMON PITFALLS IN HRP

Unfortunately HRP is not always successful. The following are some of
the common pitfalls

 The identify crisis – HR planners work in an environment

characterized by ambiguous regulations, company politics and
diverse management style. HR planners spend so much time looking
for something meaningful to do while the organisation questions the
reason for their existence
 Sponsorship of top Management – for HRP to work, it must have the
support of at least one influential senior executive. If this is missing
the process may fail
 Size of the initial effort – many HRP programmes fail because of an
overcomplicated initial effort. A good programme should start slow
and gradually expand. An accurate skills inventory and
replacement chart is a good place to start.
 Coordination with the Management and HR functions – HRP must
be coordinated with the other management and HR functions.
Unfortunately, HRP tends to become absorbed in their own function
and fail to interact with others
53
 Integration with organizational plans – HRP must be derived from
organisation plans. If this does not happen, the process is doomed
to fail
 Quantitative Vs Qualitative approaches – a strictly quantitative
approach HRP is numbers game – in, out, up, down and across,
while a strictly qualitative approach focuses on concerns for
promotability and for career development. A balanced approach is
one that may yield better results
 Non – involvement of operating managers – HRP is strictly not a HR
department function. Successful HRP requires a coordinated effort
on the parts of operating managers and the HR personnel
 The technique trap – there is sometimes a tendency to adopt one or
more of the HRP methods not for what they can do, but rather
because every one is using them. Pre occupation with the ‘in thing’
can be a major shortage.

HRP LIMITING FACTORS

HR planning can be difficult and often in accurate. The chief reasons

are:
1. Type of industry – some depend on new product development in an
extremely competitive environment; others may depend on political
decisions which are impossible to forecast, while others work on a
tendering basis
2. Opposition or scepticism among members of management; all must
be convinced of the value of HRP if it is to be a success
3. Resistance to the changes expressed in the plan. Forecasts of
labour structure, with their effects on skills and status, may be
regarded as a threat
4. The difficulty of forecasting social and economic changes
accurately, especially in an era of high unemployment
5. The need to have very complete and accurate employee records,
to be used to detect trends in employee movement. Such may be
unreliable in times of high unemployment
6. Rapid growth of new technologies
7. The plan may indicate recruitment and training, which although
desirable, may not be possible due to cash flow constraints

TASKS:

o The physical relocation of a business’s premises creates a number of HRM problems. Which ones are these?
o Discuss examples of outplacement procedures that may be undertaken by an organisation
o Define outplacement and explain how it operates
o State some ways in which labour turnover may be reduced

54
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING.

The following tools are available to assist in the HRP process

1. Skills inventory
2. Succession planning/organisation replacement chart
3. Commitment manpower planning
4. Ratio planning

SKILLS INVENTORY
This consolidates information about the organisation human resources.
It provides basic information on all employees, including in its simplest
form a list of names, certain characterizes and skills of employees.

Because the information from a skills inventory is used as input into

promotion and transfer decisions, it should contain information about
each employee’s portfolio of skills and not just those relevant to the
employee’s current job. The following broad categories of information
should be included in a skills inventory

 Personal data, age, sex, marital status

 Skills; education, job experience, training
 Special qualifications: membership in professional groups, special
achievements
 Salary and job history: present and past salary, dates of raises,
various jobs held
 Company data; benefit plan data, retirement information, seniority
 Capacity of individual; test scores on psychological and other tests,
health information
 Special preferences of individual; geographical location type of job

The primary advantage of a skills inventory is that it finishes a means to

quickly and accurately evaluate the skills available within the
organisation. In addition to helping determine promotion and transfer
decisions, this information is necessary for making other decisions, such
as whether to bid on a new contract or introduce a new product.

A skills inventory also aids in planning future employee training and

management development programmes and in recruiting and
selecting new employees

55
 HR Accounting and Auditing
As used with reference to HRM, these terminologies involve accounting for the
total potential HR of the organisation; i.e. identifying an recording the total
number of employees, their skills (academic and professional qualifications),
work experiences, etc and auditing i.e. counterchecking the accuracy of HR
accounting to determine the right total quantity and quality of current
organisations manpower.

Through HR accounting and auditing, staffing schedules and manning table

and skills inventories can be prepared to be used for HRP purposes

SUCCESSION PLANNING
This identifies specific people to fill key positions throughout the
organisations. It almost always involves use of a replacement chart.
Succession planning is basically a plan for identifying who is currently in
post and who is available and qualified to take over in the event of
retirement, voluntary leaving, dismissal or sickness.

A typical succession chart is as shown below: - (such information is

contained in an organisation replacement chart, which shows both
incumbents and potential replacements for given positions.

56
 SKILL INVENTORY PROFORMA

PERSONAL FACTORS

Name -------------------------------- Place of birth -----------

Age ---------------------------------- Present address --------
Gender ----------------------------- Tel No ----------------------
Marital status ----------------------

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

School/college/university attended with years ------------------------------------

Diploma/degree obtained (with distinctions) --------------------------------------
Details of training completed -------------------------------------------------------------

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Job areas/ field of specialization --------------------------------------------------------

Special skills --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title / title of job / jobs held / with period / duration -----------------------------

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Pay/salary ----------------------------------- Grade ---------------------

Performance /evaluation ratings --------------------
Absenteeism period ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Disciplinary records --------------------------------------------------------------------
Career plans ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Department Manager Date

Present Management Jobholders Possible Ready
successors
Post Jobholder Age Performance First choice:
Second
choice

A Management succession chart

To be effective replacement charts must be periodically updated to

reflect changes in scenarios and potential requirements. Under an
optimal succession planning system, individuals are initially identified as
candidates to move up after being nominated by management. Then
57
performance appraisal data are reviewed, potential is assessed,
developmental programmes are formulated and career paths are
mapped out.

A potential problem with many succession plans is the “crowned

prince syndrome” – which occurs when management considers for
advancement only those who have managed to become visible to
senior management. Another problem with succession planning is that
so much information must be tracked that it is very difficult to do it
manually.

COMMITMENT MANPOWER PLANNING (CMP)

This is a relatively recent approach, to HR planning designed to get
managers and their employees thinking about and involved in HRP. In
addition to encouraging managers and employees to think about HRP,
CMP provides a systematic approach to HRP.

CMP generates three reports that supply the following information;

 The supply of employees and the promotability and placement

status of each
 The organizations demand, arising from new positions and turnover
and projected vacancies for each job title and
 The balance or status of supply versus demand, including the name,
job and location of all those suitable for promotions

RATIO ANALYSIS
Two basic premises apply here.

First, that an organisation is “vital” in terms of its human resources to the

extent that it has people with high potential who are promotable,
either now or in future and backups have been identified to replace
the incumbents.

Second, is that an organisation is “stagnant” to the extent that

employees are not promotable and no backups have been identified
to replace the incumbents. The end product ratio analysis is an overall
organizational vitality index (OVI). This is calculated based on the
number of promotable personnel and the number of existing backups
in the organisation.

 Do you think better HRP could have prevented much of the downsizing that
has gone on in many large companies?

58
 TOPIC 4: RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

At the end of this topic, the trainee should be able to: -

 Explain the meaning of recruitment and selection

 Explain the basis for determining when to recruit
 Identify sources of recruitment
 Apply the procedure for recruitment
 Determine appropriate organization’s policy on disadvantaged
groups
 Definitions
 Recruitment involves seeking and attracting a pool of people from
which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be chosen.

There is a minor distinction between recruitment and selection.

Recruitment involves the attraction of suitable candidates to vacant
positions, both internally and externally to the organisation. Selection
involves the choosing of suitable candidates attracted via the
recruitment process.

It is seen as the process of seeking out and attempting to attract

individuals in external labour markets who are capable of and
interested in filling available job vacancies. It is concerned with
developing or generating a pool of job candidates in line with the HR
plan.

Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and

stimulating and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an organization.
Since it involves the process of searching for prospective employees, it
is concerned with the range of sources of supply of labour and the
techniques involved in getting the employees into an organisation.

It is an intermediate activity whose primary function is to serve as a link

between HRP and selection. The purpose of recruitment is to provide a
large pool of job candidates so that the organisation will be able to
select qualified candidates it needs.

Recruitment therefore has no direct effect on the quality of employees

taken into an organisation; rather selection is relied upon to pick
candidates who have the ability and motivation to become
productive employees of the organisation

59
Significance of the Recruitment Process
Recruitment enables organisations to receive a large pool of job
applicants from where short listing and selection of the right candidates
can be done. Recruitment is an activity used by organisations to fill job
vacancies with qualified individuals and hence the attainment of
organizational goals.

Failure to generate adequate numbers of reasonably qualified job

candidates can be costly to an organisation in the following ways: -

 It may greatly complicate the selection process e.g. by leading in

extreme cases, to the lowering of the set hiring standards. Lower
qualities hires mean an extra expenditure on employee
development and supervision to attain satisfactory levels of
performance.
 When recruitment fails to meet organizational needs for talent, a
typical response is to rise they pay level but this may however distort
traditional wage and salary relationships in the organisation. A rise in
pay level will be needed to attract highly skilled manpower that will
be stimulated and encouraged to apply for an organisation vacant
position.
 Lack of qualified candidates may lead to added costs through re-
advertisement

BASIS FOR DETERMINING WHEN TO RECRUIT

One of the first steps in planning for recruitment of employees into an
organisation is to establish adequate polices and procedures. A
recruitment policy represents the organization’s code of conduct in this
area of activity.

Before recruitment is undertaken, the need for recruitment must be

determined. A determination by the organisation, on when to recruit
involves conducting HR planning and analysing the HRP results. If the
projected labour demand is more than projected supply, the
organisation should fill the gap through recruitment. Recruitment will
thus be sourced from internal and external sources.

Vacancies must be determined for various positions in various

departments. Most organisations use a Personnel Requisition Form to
officially request the HR manager to take action to fill a particular
position. The Form describes the reason for the need to hire a new
person and the requirements for the job. It is a good idea to attach a
Job Description and personnel specifications to the Requisition Form.

60
 The job description and personnel specifications

A job description is an authoritative document on the job to be carried out by

the post holder.
It is therefore essential that job descriptions are:
 Accurate. They should contain information, which is relevant and factual.
Any unnecessary information should not be included.
 Succinct. The information should be simple, concise and to the point. It
should be understood by those who will have access to it – post holder, line
manager, HR department etc.
 Clarified. In terms of the main tasks, duties and responsibilities and the
reporting relationships.
 Drafted. Using action verbs. These include; drawing, writing, repairing etc.

Once the JD has been written, the personnel specification is next. This is a profile of
the ideal candidate the company wishes to recruit. It is the psychological
blueprint of the person – skills, knowledge, experience etc.

The personnel specification is also known as; man specification, job specification,
person specification and employee specification.

There are two ‘scientific methods’, which are used to draft personnel specifications;

 Seven-Point Plan
 Five Fold Graded System

The Seven-Point Plan uses the following criteria to define the personnel
specifications;
1. Physical make-up
2. Attainments
3. General intelligence
4. Special aptitudes
5. Interests
6. Disposition
7. Circumstances

The Five Point Grading is another way of defining personnel specifications. The five
aspects of the individual are:

1. Impact on others.
2. Acquired knowledge or qualifications
3. Innate abilities or brains
4. Motivation
5. Adjustment

These two allow an organisation to introduce a greater element of predictability and

control into personnel selection.
61
Factors Influencing the Need for Recruitment
1. Expansion and growth of organisations
2. Separations; voluntary quits, death, retirement, retrenchment
3. Mergers and take over – this may call for a need for critical skills
absent in the organisation especially the top position
4. Setting up a new enterprise
5. Changes in technology and methods of operation – new
computers machines etc
6. Restructuring or reengineering
7. Introduction of new products or services

SOURCES OF QUALIFIED PERSONNEL

An organisation may fill a particular job either with someone already
deployed by the organisation (Internal sources) or with someone from
outside (External sources). Each source has advantages and also
disadvantages

Internal Sources of Recruitment

This includes personnel already on the payroll of an organisation – its
workforce. It is the best place to source someone to fill a vacancy but
only for organisations that have been effective in recruiting and
selecting employees in the past.

Recruitment is a costly business. If the position can be filled in any other

way other than direct recruitment, then it will be worthwhile for the
organisation to pursue such possibilities.

Instead of spending lots of money recruiting a candidate externally, a

company can fill a vacancy in a number of ways:

 Job Sharing: The job can be arranged so that the tasks are shared
out among two or maybe three people. This is done on a part-
time/job sharing basis. This pattern is suitable for mothers who have
returned to work after having a family and who want to combine
looking after their families with a career.
 Overtime: This is a method used to resource peaks in production or
demand. Employees work a set amount of hours over their usual
contractual hours and usually get paid a higher premium than their
normal hourly rate – sometimes “time and a half or double time”
 Secondment: This operates by staff being temporarily transferred to
work in another section or department. This can be on both a full
time or part time basis.
 Sub-contract: By sub-contracting certain jobs and duties, employers
avoid on-costs like national insurance contributions, tax and sick

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 pay. Many large employers use sub-contracting on a regular basis.
Sub-contracting is also known as outsourcing.
 Use of a recruitment agency: This is an option, which many
companies use to fill temporary or permanent positions. It is also
used by companies to cover maternity or long-term sick leave.

Whenever a vacancy occurs, someone from within the organisation is

upgrade, transferred, promoted or sometimes even demoted.

Advantages
1. Better motivation of employees because their capabilities are
considered and opportunities offered for promotion.
2. Better utilization of employees because the company can often
make better use of their abilities in a different job
3. The employer is in a better position to evaluate those presently
employed than the outside candidates
4. It is more reliable because a present employee is known more
thoroughly than an external candidate
5. It promotes loyalty among employees for it gives them a sense of
job security and opportunities for advancement
6. A present employee is more likely to stay with the company than an
external candidate
7. It is quicker and cheaper than external sources
8. Since those employed are fully aware of and well acquainted with
the organisations polices and operating procedures, they require
little training and even induction
9. More accurate data and available concerning current employees
thus reducing the chances of making a wrong decision
10. Full utilization of the abilities of the organisations employees
improves the organization’s return on its investment – this takes into
consideration that organisations have a sizable investment in their
workforce

Disadvantages
i) Leads to inbreeding and discourages new blood, from joining an
organization
ii) Infighting for promotions can become overly intense and have a
negative effect on the morale and performance of people who are
not promoted
iii) There are possibilities that internal sources may “dry up” and it may
be difficult to find the required person from within an organisation
iv) As promotion is mostly based on seniority, the danger is that really
capable people may not be chosen for promotion the likes and
dislikes of the management may also play an important role in
selection of personnel
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v) It seldom contributes new ideas or innovations that may be very
important for progress in a competitive economy
vi) Internal sources should only be used if the vacancy to be filled is
within the capacity of present employees and if adequate
employee records have been maintained and an opportunity is
provided in advance for employees to prepare themselves for
promotion.
vii) If an organisation promotions from within, it needs a strong
employee and management development programme to ensure
its people can handle larger responsibilities.

External Sources of Recruitment

External recruiting is needed in organisations that are growing rapidly or
have a large demand for technical skilled or managerial employees.

External sources of personnel include: -

 New entrants – to the labour market e.g. fresh college graduates,

school leavers
 The unemployed already in the labour market with a wide range of
skills and abilities
 Retired experienced persons
 Employed persons from other organisations

Advantages
 The pool of talent is much larger than that available from internal
sources. The best selection can be made
 External sources provide personnel having skills and training and
education as required by the hiring organisation
 Employees hired from outside can bring new insights and
perspectives to the organisation
 It is cheaper to hire technical, skilled or managerial people from
outside rather than training and developing them internally – in case
of immediate demand for the talent.

Disadvantages
 Attracting, contacting and evaluating potential employees is more
difficult
 Employees hired from outside need a longer adjustment or
orientation period
 Recruiting externally may cause morale problems among
employees within the organisation and who feel qualified to do the
job
 Method may be expensive and time consuming

64
 There is uncertainty due to changes in demand and supply of
labour in the labour market

Summary of a recruitment and selection process

 Determine the vacancy
 Job analysis
 Job descriptions
 Personnel specifications
 Drafting the advert
 Sources of recruitment
 Arrival of applicants
 Pre-selection of candidates using CV’s/Resumes/Application forms
 The interview
 The job offer
 The induction process

TASKS.
In what ways can the organisation ensure that employees are aware of vacancies
that are available internally in the organisation?
As a human resource manager, explain how you will ensure that there is fairness
to all employees during internal recruitment processes.

METHODS OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT.

1. JOB POSTING AND BIDDING:

This is an internal method of recruitment in which notices of available
jobs are posted in central locations throughout the organization and
employees are given a specified length of time to apply for the
available jobs. Other methods used in publicizing jobs include memos
to supervisors and listings in employee publications.

Normally the job notice specifies the job title, rates of pay and
necessary qualifications. A successful job posting and bidding
programme requires the development of specific implementation
policies.

Some suggestions include the following

Both promotions and transfers should be posted
Openings should be posted for a specified time period before
internal recruitment begins

65
 Eligibility rules for the job posting system need to be developed and
communicated e.g. that no employee can apply for a posted
position unless he/she has been in his/her present position for a
period of not less than 6 months
Specific standards for selection should be included in the notice
Job bidders should be required to list their qualifications and reasons
requesting a transfer or promotion.

In unionised organizations, job posting and bidding procedures are

usually spelled out in collective Bargaining Agreement.

METHODS OF EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT.

External recruiting is needed in organizations that are growing rapidly
or have a large demand for technical, skilled or managerial
employees. The pool of talent in the external sources is much larger
than anywhere else.

The following are some of the methods used for external recruitment.

i) Recommendations by present employees, also termed, employee

referrals are used especially to fill low cadre vacancies-the semi
skilled and unskilled jobs.

ii) Unsolicited Applications-These are job applications received from

candidates without a vacancy existing in the company. The
candidates may send their details to the company as a general
enquiry.

iii) Direct Link-Happens where an organization has an established

relationship with a training school or university. The institutions liase
with the recruiting organization and provide details of suitable
candidates. The organization may be involved with the institution
through provision of education material or even scholarships.

iv) Campus Recruiting: Such activities are co-coordinated by the

university placement centre. Organizations send some recruiters to
the campus and the most promising recruits are then invited to visit
the office or plant before a final employment decision is made. A
related method of tapping the products of institution of higher
learning is through Co-operating work programmes.

v) Co-operative Work Programmes: Through these programmes,

students may work part-time and go to school part-time, or they
may go to school and work at different times of the year. Such
66
 programmes are attractive as they offer opportunities for both a
formal education and work experience.

vi) Internet. This newest recruitment source offers an inexpensive way to

advertise available positions to a national and global audience.
The Internet has various advantages, including a vast pool of
potential candidates, extensive search capabilities, reduced
paperwork, and the ability to update information as often as
necessary.

vii) Retiree job Banks. Company retires who are already familiar with
the company’s culture are a great resource for filling short-term and
part-time positions

viii) Professional Recruiting Firms: These are Human Resource

consultants who provide employee recruitment services. They
include Manpower Services, Hawkins and Associates and so on.

ix) Temporary Help Agencies & Employee Leasing Companies: One of

the fastest growing areas of recruitment is temporary help hired
through employment agencies. The agency pays the salary and
benefits of the temporary help; the organization pays the
employment agency an agreed-upon figure for the services of the
temporary help.

What are the advantages and disadvantages, to an organization, of using temporary

help?

Unlike temporary help agencies, which place people on short-term

jobs at various companies, employee-leasing companies provide
permanent staff to client company’s issue the workers’ pay checks and
provide various employment benefits. This borders on the outsourcing
by the client company.

x) Government Employment Agencies: These recruit on behalf of the

government and include the TSC and the Public Service
Commission.
xi) Employment Agencies: These are brokers who bring employers and
employees together. They specialize in specific e.g. accountants,
technicians etc. Professional bodies may also be found here offering
placement services for its members e.g. ICPAK, IPM etc
xii) Executive Search Firms/Head Hunters: These employment agencies
seek candidates for high salaried positions e.g. CEO’s. They believe
that the best candidates are not those who respond to adverts or
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 look for new jobs in other ways but those who are successful in their
present jobs and are not thinking of moving elsewhere.

The term head-hunter apparently comes with the concept of hiring a

replacement head of an organization. Customers of such agencies
seek to fill high-level vacancies.

Headhunting specifics.

Advantages
Saves administrative and advertising costs
Ability to reach the best in the market
Confidentiality
Gets best fitting candidate for the job
Preserves anonymity of recruiting firm

Disadvantages
Disruptive to companies that lose their managers
Head-hunters may be bribed to recommend someone
It may mislead potential candidates
May not be lawful

xiii) Hiring at the Gate: This is suitable when employing casual

labourers who present themselves at the firm’s gates waiting for
an employment opportunity.

xiv) Advertising: This is one of the most widely used methods of

recruitment. Person specification and job descriptions form the
basis of every job advert. Advertising is a crucial part of the
recruitment process.

Advertising is intended to reach out into the labour market with an

attractive offer for employment aimed at producing an adequate
response in terms of:

Enquiries/requests for details

Numbers of suitable applications submitted.

The main sources of job advertising outside the organization are; local
newspapers, national newspapers, technical/professional journals, via
the Internet, via job centres, via other agencies, posters at the factory
gates.

The effectiveness of an advertisement for a job vacancy can be

judged by: -
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 Number of inquiries it stimulates
 Number of applications submitted
 Suitability of the applicants.

An effective job advertisement is one which: -

 Identifies the organization/industry with a few preferences

 Provides brief details about the features of the job
 Summarizes all the essential personal features required of the job
holder
 Refers briefly to any desirable personal features
 States the main conditions of employment, including salary, of the
job.
 States how and to whom the enquiry or application is made
 Presents all the above points in a clear and attractive manner
 Conforms to legal requirements
 Attracts sufficient numbers of suitable applicants.

A well written advert should contain: the job title, benefits and
incentives, training, company name, to whom they should apply,
telephone numbers, closing date for applications. Its should have a
catchy headline and design that will attract candidates, an interesting
and catchy content that makes the applicants to keep reading on
and an unambiguous text about the job.

An obvious and important query for Human Resources personnel is

which method of recruitment supplies the best talent pool. One
method proposed for increasing the effectiveness of all recruiting
methods is the use of Realistic Job Previews (RJP), which provide
complete job information, both positive and negative to the job
applicant-a departure from the early attempts to sell the organization
and job by making it look good. The RJP has been found to reduce
new employee turnover.

Organizational Inducements in Recruitment.

Recruitment seeks to attract a large pool of qualified personnel for the

job opening. Organizational inducements are all the positive features
and benefits the organization offers to attract job applicants.

Three of the most popular inducements are: -

i. Compensation systems: Starting salaries, frequency of pay raises,
incentives and the nature of the organizations fringe benefits can

69
 all influence the number of people attracted via a recruitment
process.

ii. Career opportunities: Organizations that have a reputation for

providing employees with career opportunities also attract large
pools of qualified candidates via a recruitment process. These
include employee and management development opportunities,
assisting current employees in career planning shows the firm
cares, and also serves to attract or as an inducement to potential
employees.

iii. Organizational reputation: The organization’s reputation is also a

great inducement to potential workers.

Factors that affect reputation include: -

 The organizations general treatment of workers

 Nature & quality of its products and services
 Participation in worthwhile social endeavours.

ORGANIZATIONAL RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION POLICY.

A recruitment policy of an organisation establishes the general
guidelines for the staffing process. It specifies the objectives of
recruitment and provides a framework of implementation through well-
established procedures.

Recruitment policy involves a commitment to broad principles such as

filling vacancies with the best-qualified individuals. It may embrace
several issues such as the extent of promotion from within, attitude of
the enterprise in recruiting its old employees, friends, relatives,
handicaps, minority groups, women employees and relatives of present
employees. It may also involve the organisations systems and
procedures to be followed for implementing a recruiting programme.

Elements of a Recruitment Programme.

A good recruitment policy has the following elements:

i. Organisations objectives both in the short run and long run must be
taken into consideration as basic parameters for recruitment
decisions.
ii. Identification of the recruitment needs. The recruiting staff must
make decisions regarding the balance of qualitative dimensions of
the persons to be recruited. They should prepare a profile of each
category of workers and accordingly work out the recruits
specifications, decide the selections, departments or branches
70
 where they should be placed and identify the particular
responsibilities to be immediately assigned to them.
iii. Preferred sources of recruitment, which could be tapped by the
organisation – internal and external sources, should be identified.
iv. Identification of selection criteria. A good selection criterion
capable of meeting the organisations staffing needs should be
decided upon by the management.
v. Cost of recruitment should be estimated. Cost of recruitment
involved should be considered by comparing the sources and
methods of recruitment.

TASK
o Describe the relationship among job analysis, personnel planning, recruitment and
selection.
o What are some of the Government of Kenya Labour regulations that impact on
recruitment?

EMPLOYEE SELECTION:

INTRODUCTION

Once the organization’s recruitment activities have succeeded in

attracting sufficient members of relevant applications from the external
labour market, the aim of subsequent selection activities is to identify
the most suitable applicants and persuade the to join the organization.

The process of recruitment ends once a company has successfully

managed to attract a fair number of replies to a vacancy posting.

SELECTION TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES.

i) Preliminary Interviews
ii) Filling Application Blanks/Forms
iii) Selection Interview
iv) Psychometric tests /Employment tests
v) Assessment Centres
vi) Medical Examination
vii) Reference Check
viii) Final Selection by the officer in charge.

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1. PRELIMINARY INTERVIEWS
The preliminary interviews to job applicants is usually conducted by a
special interviewer at the employment office. It is essentially a sorting
process in which the interviewer compares the applicants’
qualifications with the job requirements.
Assessment Centre

2. APPLICATION BLANKS.
This is one of the most common methods used for collecting
information from applicants. Application blanks are meant to secure
desired factual information from an applicant in a format convenient
for evaluating the applicant’s qualifications.

Application blanks set out the information on candidates in a

standardized format the application blank serves the following
purposes:

 They provide the candidates first formal introduction to the

company.
 They generate data in uniform formats and hence make it easy to
make cross comparisons of the applicants.
 They generate data that can serve as a basis to initiate a dialogue
in the interview.
 Data in the application blank can be used for purposes of analysis
and research in personnel. The data collected may be stored for
subsequent use-development of a databank.

Most application blanks seem to contain the following kinds of

information:

o Personal data
o Marital data
o Physical data
o Educational data
o Employment data
o Extra-curricular data
o References

Normally a member of the human resources department reviews the

information on the application form to determine the applicants’
qualifications in relation to the requirements of current available jobs.

Another screening procedure is the use of weighted application forms.

These forms assign different weights to different questions.

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Sorting Applications.
Applications are usually sorted out by dividing them into three
categories: -

o Clearly suitable
o Possibles
o Unsuitable

Clearly suitable applicants are invited for interviews, possible

contenders are held temporarily in reserve, while unsuitable applicants
are rejected.

Once the shortlist has been drawn up and the candidates invited for
interviews, the application form and/or CV takes on a different role,
that of aiding the interviewer in the next interactive stage of the
selection process: the interview.

SELECTION METHODS.

The main selection methods are the interview, assessment centres and
psychological tests.

An interview is a formal exchange of facts, impressions and viewpoints

between a [prospective employer and a prospective employee with a
view to their mutual selection or parting. the most common interview
options are: -

o One interviewer
o Two interviewers
o A panel of interviewers

Individual Interviews.
The individual interview is the most familiar method of selection. It
involves face-to-face discussion and provides the best opportunity for
the establishment of close contact and rapport between the
interviewer and the candidate.

Interview Panels.
This consists of two or more people gathered together to interview one
candidate. More often than not this consists of a manager (personnel)
and the line manager.

Selection Boards.
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Selection boards are more formal and usually larger interviewing
panels convened due to a large number of parties interested in the
selection. They enable a number of different people to have a look at
the applicants and compare notes on the spot. However; they may
waste time due to unplanned questions. Candidates are not allowed
to expand their arguments.

3. SELECTION INTERVIEW
This includes questions designed to test achievement or aptitude and is
at present the most commonly used method of personality assessment.

Interviews: A selection procedure designed to predict future job

performance on the basis of applicants' oral responses to oral inquiries.

The selection interview is to obtain and assess information about a

candidate, which will enable a valid prediction to be made of his, or
her future performance in the job in comparison with the predictions
made for any other candidate.

Advantages of Interviews
o Provide opportunities for interviewers to ask probing questions about
the candidates’ experiences and explore the extent to which the
candidates’ competences match those specified for the job.
o Enable interviewers to describe the job and organization in greater
detail.
o Provide opportunities for candidates to ask questions about the job
and clarify any issues they may have e.g. those concerning training,
career prospects, the organization, terms and conditions of
employment.
o Enables a face-to-face encounter so that the interviewer can make
an assessment of the candidate.
o Gives the candidate the same opportunity to assess the
organization, the interviewer and the job.
o Useful for determining if the applicant has requisite communicative
or social skills which may be necessary for the job
o Interviewer can obtain supplementary information
o Used to appraise candidates' verbal fluency
o Can assess the applicant's job knowledge
o Can be used for selection among equally qualified applicants
o Enables the supervisor and/or co-workers to determine if there is
compatibility between the applicant and the employees
o Allows the applicant to ask questions that may reveal additional
information useful for making a selection decision
o The interview may be modified as needed to gather important
information
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Disadvantages
o Can lack validity as a means of making sound predictions of
performance and lack reliability in the sense of measuring the same
things for different candidates.
o Rely on the skill of the interviewer.
o Do not necessarily assess competence in meeting the demands of
the particular job.
o Can lead to biased and subjective judgments by interviewers.
o Subjective evaluations are made
o Decisions tend to be made within the first few minutes of the
interview with the remainder of the interview used to validate or
justify the original decision
o Interviewers form stereotypes concerning the characteristics
required for success on the job
o Research has shown disproportionate rates of selection between
minority and non-minority members using interviews
o Negative information seems to be given more weight
o Not much evidence of validity of the selection procedure
o Not as reliable as tests

INTERVIEWING ARRANGEMENTS
The following is a general pattern of interview arrangements.

o Candidate should be contacted well in advance and told where

and when to come and whom to ask for.
o Applicants should have somewhere quiet and comfortable in which
to wait for the interview.
o Interviewers must have been fully briefed and trained on
interviewing and the programme.
o Identify private and comfortable rooms for the interview.
o Allow time for the candidate to be told about the company and
job and conditions of employment.
o Tell candidates what will be the next step after the interview.
o People who are to conduct the interview must be properly briefed
on the job and procedures they will use. Training in interviewing
techniques is important here for all the panellists. The legal
requirements on recruitment and selection must be well understood.
o Careful preparation is essential and this means a careful study of the
person specifications and the candidates’ application form / CV.
Three fundamental questions need to be answered at this stage.
o What are the criteria to be used in selecting the candidate?
(Experience, qualifications, competence and skills etc)
o What else needs to be known to ensure the candidate meets the
selection criteria?
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o What further information is needed from the interview for an
accurate picture of how well the candidate meets the criteria?
o The interviewer must ensure that the interview will not be interrupted
through visitors, telephone calls etc.
o There should be no desks for interviewees to sit behind as this
creates a psychological barrier. Interviewing across a desk that is
cluttered up with filling trays, telephones, ornaments and other
objects should be avoided as this adds to the psychological barrier.
o The candidate should be placed on one side of the desk or two
chairs with a low table in between may be used.

Train Interviewers.
Improve the interpersonal skills of the interviewer and the interviewer's
ability to make decisions without influence from non-job related
information.

Interviewers should be trained to:

o Avoid asking questions unrelated to the job

o Avoid making quick decisions about an applicant
o Avoid stereotyping applicants
o Avoid giving too much weight to a few characteristics.
o Try to put the applicant at ease during the interview
o Communicate clearly with the applicant
o Maintain consistency in the questions asked

Conducting the Interview.

Generally, an interview can be divided into five sections:

i) The welcome and introductory remarks.

ii) The major part – Obtaining information about the candidate to
assess against the person specification.
iii) Provision of information to candidates about the organization and
the job.
iv) Answering questions from the candidate.
v) Closing the interview with an indication of the next step

Most experienced interviewers begin an interview session with a few

remarks and questions designed to welcome and set the candidate at
ease.

When framing questions, the following should be adhered to:

76
o Questions should not suggest their own answers
o The meaning of questions should be clear and expressed in a way
appropriate to the candidate’s experience and education.
o Probing questions – those that begin with “how, why” should be
asked.
o Irrelevant questions should be avoided.
o Inappropriate selection criteria MUST be avoided, particularly the
“halo effect” – Interviewers assume that one desirable characteristic
in an applicant necessarily means that the candidate is equally
worthy in other respects, e.g. an attractive physique does not imply
that the applicant for a secretary’s job will be a good typist.
o Record all facts of the interview immediately after the interview.

INTERVIEW SKILLS

Among the most frequently suggested skills for interviewing are the
following:

o The ability to prepare adequately.

o Ability to listen, including picking up points implied in the
candidate’s responses.
o Questioning skills-asking relevant questions at the right time.
o Ability to analyse the picture of the candidate as is emerging during
the interview
o Ability to summarize and make notes on the candidate’s
performance
o Ability to supply relevant information to the candidate, without
boring him
o Skill in building and maintaining a relationship/rapport with the
candidate
o Ability to control the interview with tact, diplomacy and firmness

THE DO’S AND DON’TS OF INTERVIEWING.

DO
o Prepare job related questions pertaining to the application &
resume.
o Take brief notes
o Listen carefully
o Build rapport
o Demonstrate respect for the candidate
o Be friendly, yet businesslike
o Set the agenda
o Hide your personnel feelings
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o Manage the interview
o Remain as objective as possible
o Ask open ended questions
o Be silent after asking a question
o Follow up any answers that appear to be evasive and keep track
o Close interview by stating sequence of events and time frames
o Jot down notes and your impressions of the candidates. Evaluate
each candidate after the interview is concluded.

DO NOT
o Do not lose eye contact for long periods of time by taking extensive
notes.
o Do not make judgments on one trait without considering all traits.
Avoid stereotyping the candidate.
o Do not overdo it by being too friendly or too stern
o Do not let the applicant see that you favour or disfavour him.
o Avoid questions that only allow a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response.
o Do not accept general questions. Probe for more specific
information.
o Do not continue to talk just because the applicant does not reply
quickly.
o Do not let yourself become lost or fail to listen carefully to everything
being said.
o Do not use leading, multiple or loaded questions.
o Do not coach the candidate about the job and requirements
before asking your planned question.
o Do not dominate the interview.

Summary of Interviews
In general, interviews have the following weaknesses:
o Validity of the interview is relatively low
o Reliability of the interview is also low
o Stereotyping by interviewers, in general, may lead to adverse
impact against minorities
o The subjective nature of this procedure may allow bias such as
favouritism and politics to enter into the selection process
o This procedure is not standardized.
o Not useful when large numbers of applicants must be evaluated
and/or selected

 What are the possible consequences of not training and briefing the
interviewer, before an interview exercise commences.

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TYPES OF INTERVIEWS

i) Patterned/Structured Interviews
ii) Free/Unstructured Interviews
iii) Semi-Structured Interviews
iv) Stress Interviews
v) Behaviour Description Interviews
vi) Situational Interviews
vii) Group/Discussion Interviews
viii) Oral Interview Boards

PATTERNED/STRUCTURED INTERVIEW
This is the most common method of interviewing. It involves working out
in advance the questions to be asked, the kind of information to be
sought, how the interview is to be conducted and how much time is to
be allotted to it. Questions are asked in a particular order with very
little or no deviations at all. If an applicant wants to discuss something
else, he is quickly guided back to the prepared questions. Pattered
interviews are of two types: -

o Comprehensive Structured interviews

o Structured behavioural interviews.

Comprehensive Structured Interviews Candidates are asked questions

pertaining to how they would handle job-related situations, job
knowledge, worker requirements, and how the candidate would
perform various job simulations.

Structured behavioural interviews. This technique involves asking all

interviewee’s standardized questions about how they handled past
situations that were similar to situations they may encounter on the job.
The interviewer may also ask discretionary probing questions for details
of the situations, the interviewee's behaviour in the situation and the
outcome. The interviewee's responses are then scored with
behaviourally anchored rating scales.

FREE/UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS.
This involves a procedure where different questions may be asked of
different applicants. The term refers to unstructured and relatively
unplanned type of interview. In such an interview, the applicant is
asked some general questions and he may reply to them for a
considerable length of time. Generally, the interview is conducted in a
free atmosphere and the candidate is encouraged to express himself
on a variety of subjects such as his expectations, motivation, interests

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etc. Interviewee is allowed to express himself fully allowing assessment
by the employer.

SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Here, the interviewer utilizes questions in key areas, which are prepared
in advance.

STRESS INTERVIEWS
In this type of interview, the interviewer assumes a hostile role towards
the applicant. He deliberately asks questions or makes comments,
which are meant to frustrate the interviewee. Usually, the interviewer in
such circumstances asks questions rapidly, criticizes the interviewee’s
answers, interrupts frequently etc.

The purpose is to find out how the candidate behaves in a stressful

environment – whether he loses temper, gets confused or frightened.

BEHAVIOUR DESCRIPTION INTERVIEWS

Behaviour Description Interviews Candidates are asked what actions
they have taken in prior job situations that are similar to situations they
may encounter on the job. The interviews are then scored using a
scoring guide constructed by job experts.

SITUATIONAL INTERVIEWS
Situational Interview Candidates are interviewed about what actions
they would take in various job-related situations. The job-related
situations are usually identified using the critical incidents job analysis
technique. The interviews are then scored using a scoring guide
constructed by job experts.

GROUP/DISCUSSION INTERVIEWS
Groups rather than individuals are interviewed. The interviewees are
given certain problems and are asked to reach a decision within a
specified time limit. The assumption underlying this type of interview is
that behaviour displayed during problem solving is related to the
potential success of the job.

The objective is to see how well individuals perform on a particular task

or particular situation. These interviews are held for top managerial
positions.

ORAL INTERVIEW BOARDS

Oral Interview Boards This technique entails the job candidate giving
oral responses to job-related questions asked by a panel of
interviewers. Each member of the panel then rates each interviewee
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on such dimensions as work history, motivation, creative thinking, and
presentation. The scoring procedure for oral interview boards has
typically been subjective; thus, it would be subject to personal biases of
those individuals sitting on the board. This technique may not be
feasible for jobs in which there are a large number of applicants that
must be interviewed.

4. PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS/EMPLOYMENT TESTS

The term Psychometric Tests is used to refer to tests of personality,

motivation and psychological make-up. The three most important tests
conducted during the selection process are: -

a. Aptitude or Intelligence Tests

b. Work Sample/performance/Achievement Tests
c. Personality Tests

a) Aptitude Tests or Intelligence Tests

These tests are used to measure intellectual ability of an individual

candidate. They focus attention on a particular type of talent e.g.
learning and reasoning.

Cognitive Abilities Tests. These are Paper and pencil or individualized

assessment measures of an individual's general mental ability or
intelligence. They are intended to measure the general intelligence
(IQ) of a job candidate.

Ability tests measure job related characteristics such as number,

verbal, perceptual or mechanical ability.

Aptitude Tests are job specific tests designed to predict the potential
an individual has to perform tasks within a job.

Examples of such tests include;

o The 16 PF Test – assumes 16 clusters of behaviour, relating to
excitability, assertiveness, emotional stability, conscientiousness,
extrovert, introvert, cheerfulness, depression.
o Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – seeks to categorize test subjects
under four main headings; objective/intuitive, logical/emotional,
decisive/hesitant, introvert/extrovert.
o DISC Test – aims to identify the extents of Dominance, or
Inducement, Submission or Steadiness and Compliance in test-
subjects personalities.

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Advantages of Psychometric Tests.
o Easy and cheap to administer.
o Assists make distinctions among candidates with same
academic qualifications and work experience.
o Assists other selection procedures
o Assists weed out mentally incapable candidates.
o People with less education but genuine intellectual abilities are
identifiable.
o Highly reliable
o Verbal reasoning and numerical tests have shown high validity
for a wide range of jobs
o The validity rises with increasing complexity of the job
o Combinations of aptitude tests have higher validities than
individual tests alone
o May be administered in group settings where many applicants
can be tested at the same time
o Scoring of the tests may be completed by computer scanning
equipment
o Lower cost than personality tests

Disadvantages of psychometric tests.

o May turnout in unfairness
o May lead to poor allocation of roles
o Persons may practice so well to pass tests.
o Persons’ state of mind, may affect results.
o Persons worth depends on so many other factors
o Makes people feel nervous and fearful – leading to loss of self-
confidence and poor performance.
o Differences between males and females in abilities (e.g.,
knowledge of mathematics) may negatively impact the scores
of female applicants

Examples of Cognitive Ability Tests

o Employee Aptitude Survey a battery of employment tests
designed to meet the practical requirements of a personnel
office. Consists of 10 cognitive, perceptual, and psychomotor
ability tests. Nine of the 10 tests have 5-minute time limits. Such
tests seek to understand; verbal comprehension, numerical
ability, visual pursuit, visual speed, space visualization, numerical
reasoning, verbal reasoning, word fluency, manual speed and
accuracy and, symbolic reasoning.
o Progressive matrices. A nonverbal test designed for use as an aid
in assessing mental ability. Requires the examinee to solve
problems presented in abstract figures and designs.

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 o Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test. Brief individually administered
measure of verbal and nonverbal intelligence for people aged
4-90. Developed specifically for screening purposes and for those
situations where it would be difficult to do a more in-depth
assessment.
o Short-term Memory Tests A form of cognitive ability test that are
exemplified by short-term memory tasks such as forward digit
span and serial rote learning, which do not require mental
manipulation of inputs in order to provide an output. Short-term
memory tests lack face validity in predicting job performance.
o Information Processing Tests Selection tests that have the same
information processing requirements that occur on the job. In
other words, the tests are tailored for each particular job. There is
some evidence that adverse impact is reduced

Work Sample/performance/Achievement Tests

These tests measure an individual’s current achievement at the time of
testing and thus they check on the practical ability that the job
applicant claims to have on a specific job.

Work sample tests measure ones range and depth of knowledge of a

subject and the individuals grasp of basic principles which are
acquired as a result of education, training or on the job experience.
Achievement tests are of two types;

a. Tests for measuring job knowledge, which may be oral or written.

These tests are administered to determine the proficiency of a
candidate in performing a particular job activity.
b. Work sample tests – which requires the actual performance of a
job as a means of testing what the individual is capable of
achieving.

Work Sample tests are based on the premise that the best predictor of
future behaviour is observed behaviour under similar situations. These
tests require the examinee to perform tasks that are similar to those that
are performed on the job.

Personality tests include the following types of tests; self-report,

projective tests, self-assessment, group discussions, physical indications
and situational tests.

Advantages
o High reliability as it exposes candidates’ true abilities.
o Directly relevant to the work to be done.

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 o High content validity since work samples are a sample of the
actual work performed on the job
o Low adverse impact
o Because of their relationship to the job, these tests are typically
viewed more favourable by examinees than aptitude or
personality tests
o Difficult for applicants to fake job proficiency which helps to
increase the relationship between score on the test and
performance on the job
o Work Sample tests use equipment that is the same or substantially
similar to the actual equipment used on the job

Disadvantages
o Covers only part of the duties of the vacant job.
o Tests conditions (Nervousness, fear, stress) may give poor results.
o Those who have done similar tests before may fair better.
o Candidates who pass may think they know everything.
o Internal candidates who fail may suffer loss of confidence
o Access to education and training is a disadvantage.
o High-test scores is no guarantee for good performance.
o Tests do not evaluate the entire person.
o Costly to administer; often can only be administered to one
applicant at a time
o Although useful for jobs where tasks and duties can be
completed in a short period of time, these tests have less ability
to predict performance on jobs where tasks may take days or
weeks to complete
o Less able to measure aptitudes of an applicant thus restricting
the test to measuring ability to perform the work sample and not
more difficult tasks that may be encountered on the job

Types of Work Sample Tests

Work-Sample Tests of Trainability. These are tests through a period of
instruction when the applicant is expected to learn tasks involved in a
work sample. The work-sample tests of trainability are suitable for
untrained applicants with no previous job experience.

Simulation of an Event. These tests present the candidate with a picture

of an incident along with quotations from those involved. The
candidates then respond to a series of questions in which they write
down the decisions they would make. The test is scored by subject
matter experts.

Low Fidelity Simulations These tests present applicants with descriptions

of work situations and five alternative responses for each situation.
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Applicants choose the responses they would most likely and least likely
make in each situation.

Work-samples Applicants perform observable, job-related behaviours

as predictors of criterion performance. It is not feasible to adapt certain
work behaviours for testing. Work samples often are not conducive to
group administration and, therefore, were dropped from consideration
because of concerns regarding test security.

Personality Tests
These aim at measuring those basic characteristics of an individual,
which are non-intellectual in nature. They probe deeply to discover
clues about an individual’s value system, emotional reactions, maturity,
motivation, interests, ability to adjust to the stress of everyday life and
capacity for interpersonal relations and self-image.

Personality Tests refer to the selection procedure that measures the

personality characteristics of applicants that are related to future job
performance. Personality tests typically measure one or more of five
personality dimensions: extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

Advantages
o Can result in lower turnover due if applicants are selected for
traits that are highly correlated with employees who have high
longevity within the organization
o Can reveal more information about applicant's abilities and
interests
o Can identify interpersonal traits that may be needed for certain
jobs

o Disadvantages
o Difficult to measure personality traits that may not be well
defined
o Applicant’s training and experience may have greater impact
on job performance than applicant's personality
o Responses by applicant may be altered by applicant's desire to
respond in a way they feel would result in their selection
especially where there is awareness of being examined.
Applicants are likely to display only desired personality traits.
o Lack of diversity if all selected applicants have same personality
traits
o They ignore the average behaviour of the individual.
o Likelihood of different personality descriptions by different
assessors.
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 o Cost may be prohibitive for both the test and interpretation of
results
o Lack of evidence to support validity of use of personality tests

The techniques for personality testing include;

o Projective tests – describing the meaning of objects and shapes.

o Assessment of contribution to a leaderless group discussion
o Self analysis sessions – candidates assess their own behaviour and
motivations
o Physical indications tests
o Situational tests for personality.
o Physical Abilities Tests
o Physical Abilities Tests: Tests typically test applicants on some
physical requirement such as lifting strength, rope climbing, or
obstacle course completion.

Advantages
o Can identify individuals who are physically unable to perform the
essential functions of a job without risking injury to themselves or
others
o Can result in decreased costs related to disability/medical
claims, insurance, and workers compensation
o Decreased absenteeism

Disadvantages
o Costly to administer
o Requirements must be shown to be job related through a
thorough job analysis.
o May have age based disparate impact against older applicants

Self-Assessments
This technique involves applicants generating self-ratings on relevant
performance over time; self-assessments can be useful to clarify job
performance expectations between employees and supervisors.

Problems with this approach:

o Self-ratings show greater leniency, less variability, more bias, and less
agreement with the judgments of others
o The predictive validity of this technique is questionable the
predictors related to self-assessments and supervisors ratings may
show a lack of congruence.
o Research suggests that applicants may not honestly respond to this
type of technique
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o Self-assessment scores tend to be inflated
o Evidence suggests there is low face validity and perceived fairness
associated with using this technique to promote law enforcement
personnel.
o The evidence suggests low accuracy compared to objective
measures.
o Self-assessments may not correspond to ratings from other sources
(e.g., peers) due to a lack of congruence on which specific job
dimensions are to be assessed and the relative importance of
specific job dimensions.
o Congruency in ratings between supervisors and employees may be
affected by the decision of supervisors to agree with the self-
assessments of employees to avoid potential employee relation
conflicts.

OTHER EMPLOYEE SELECTION TESTS

Biographical Inventories
Techniques for scoring application forms or biographical questionnaires
to be used for selection of applicants.

Advantages
o Useful for jobs where a large number of employees are
performing the same or similar job
o Useful for jobs where there are a large number of applicants
relative to the number of openings

Future Autobiographies
A candidate is asked to write a future autobiography stating what
he/she would be doing in five years. The autobiographies are then
scored by two judges for differentiation, demand, and agency.
Agency is defined as the extent to which a person sees himself/herself
as the prime agent in determining the course of his/her future life.
Demand is defined as the extent to which an individual portrays his/her
life as a long-term, continuing effort on his/her part. Differentiation is
defined as the extent to which an individual has created a complex,
detailed mapping of his/her future.

Problems with this technique:

o This test does not measure any of the KSA's that were identified
through the job analysis.
o There is no evidence that this method would reduce adverse
impact.

 What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the CV in the selection process?
 What is a self-report questionnaire and how exactly does it work?
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SELECTION TECHNIQUES: ASSESSMENT CENTRES.

An Assessment Centre consists of a standardized evaluation of

behaviour based on multiple evaluations including: job-related
simulations, interviews, and/or psychological tests. Job Simulations are
used to evaluate candidates on behaviours relevant to the most
critical aspects (or competencies) of the job.

The term "assessment centre" refers to a controlled environment used to

predict the probable managerial success of individuals mainly on the
basis of evaluation of their behaviour in a variety of simulated
situations.

Assessment centres usually have some sort of in-basket exercise, which

contains contents similar to those, which are found in the in-basket for
the job, which is being tested.

Other possibilities include oral exercises, counselling simulations,

problem analysis exercises, interview simulations, role-play exercises,
written report/analysis exercises, and leaderless group exercises.
Assessment centres allow candidates to demonstrate more of their skills
through a number of job relevant situations.

Several trained observers and techniques are used. Judgments about

behaviour are made and recorded. These judgments are pooled in a
meeting among the assessors or by an averaging process. In discussion
among assessors, comprehensive accounts of behaviour, often
including ratings, are pooled. The discussion results in evaluations of the
performance of the assessed on the dimensions or other variables.

An Assessment Centre can be defined as "a variety of testing

techniques designed to allow candidates to demonstrate, under
standardized conditions, the skills and abilities that are most essential
for success in a given job".

Assessment centres incorporate a range of assessment techniques and

typically have the following features:

o The focus of the centre is on behaviour.

o Exercises are used to capture and simulate the key dimensions of
the job.
o Interviews and tests will be used in addition to group exercises.
o Several candidates or participants are assessed together to
allow interaction and to make the experience more open and
participative.
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 o Several assessors or observers are used in order to increase the
objectivity of assessments.

Assessment centres provide good opportunities for indicating the

extent to which the candidates match the culture of the organization.
They give the candidates a better feel for the organization and its
values so that they can decide for themselves whether or not they are
likely to fit.

An assessment centre is a process, not a place that incorporates

multiple forms of assessment-simulation exercises, in-tray exercises,
psychological tests and interviews.

It is distinguished by its: -

o Combination of assessment methods

o The central role of simulation exercises
o Groups of candidates assessed by groups of observers
o Extended period of selection process

Advantages
o Considerable data about the candidates can be collected
o Candidates can display a range of knowledge and skills over the
course of the half to one-and-a half days
o If successful, can produce valid and reliable choices of
candidates
o Has the potential for use as a staff development tool as well as
for selection purposes
o Provides useful experience for assessors-testing own judgment
against that of others.

Disadvantages
o Complexities of putting an assessment centre together (selecting
tests, devising simulations, organizing interviews and assessors
etc)
o Costliness of setting up and then running a centre.
o Assessment centres cannot accurately measure tacit skills or
capabilities.

ASSESSMENT CENTRE METHODS

Leaderless Group Discussion
The leaderless group discussion is a type of assessment centre exercise
where groups of applicants meet as a group to discuss an actual job-
related problem. As the meeting proceeds, the behaviour of the

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candidates is observed to see how they interact and what leadership
and communications skills each person displays.

Problems with this technique:

o This type of exercise was not feasible for selecting candidates
from a potential applicant pool of 8000 individuals because of
the time and cost involved with training the individuals rating the
applicants.
o Since every group would be different, individuals could argue
that the process is biased or unfair.
o The process is not standardized.

Role Playing
Role-playing is a type of assessment centre exercise where the
candidate assumes the role of the incumbent of the position and must
deal with another person in a job- related situation. A trained role
player is used and responds "in character" to the actions of the
candidate. Observing raters assesses performance.

Problems with this technique:

o Since this technique is not conducive to group administration,
test security would be an issue.
o Job content areas identified in the job analysis were not as
amenable to this type of exercise as they were to the selection
techniques utilized in the final test

While assessment centres vary in the number and type of exercises

included, two of the most common exercises are the in-basket and the
oral exercise.

In a traditional in-basket exercise, candidates are given time to review

the material and initiate in writing whatever actions they believe to be
most appropriate in relation to each in-basket item. When time is
called for the exercise, the in-basket materials and any notes, letters,
memos, or other correspondence written by the candidate are
collected for review by one or more assessors. Often the candidates
are then interviewed to ensure that the assessor(s) understand actions
taken by the candidate and the rationale for the actions. If an
interview is not possible, it is also quite common to have the candidate
complete a summary sheet (i.e., a questionnaire).

Like all assessment centre exercises, oral exercises can take many forms
depending on the work behaviours or factors of the job being
simulated. Common forms of oral exercises include press conference

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exercises, formal presentations, and informal presentations (briefing
exercise).
In oral presentation exercises, candidates are given a brief period of
time in which to plan/organize their thoughts, make notes, etc., for the
presentation/briefing.

Traditionally, the audience is played by the assessor(s) who observes

the presentation and makes ratings. Candidates may also be asked a
series of questions following their briefing/presentation. The questions
may or may not relate directly to the topic of the presentation.

6. PHYSICAL AND MEDICAL EXAMINATION.

Physical and medical examination is conducted to determine whether
a candidate is medically fit for certain types of jobs which may require
unusual stamina, strength or tolerance of working conditions.

A physical or medical examination could therefore qualify an individual

for a particular job if he is medically fit for the job. Candidates are
examined by the company’s doctor or by a doctor approved by the
company.

The medical and physical examination is therefore resorted to by

employers to;

o Determine whether the applicant has the physical ability to carry

on the duties and responsibilities of the job effectively.
o Ascertain whether the applicant has a record of health
problems, which can potentially affect his behaviour on the job
adversely.
o Know whether the applicant is more sensitive to certain aspects
of workplace environment such as chemicals.

7. REFERENCES OR BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION.

Before one is offered the job, a reference check is made. This may
include verification from past teachers, employers or public people
and even police verification.

The main objective of this is to get background information of the job

applicant regarding his working ability, cooperativeness, dependability
etc. It is meant to gather additional information about the mental
faculties, behaviour and physical health. It is sought to guard oneself
against possible falsification by applicants.

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References may be made through mail, telephone, personal contacts
or completion of a reference form.
8. FINAL SELECTION & APPROVAL BY THE MANAGER CONCERNED.
Finally, after the candidates has undergone all the selection steps
administered by the company including checking a reference check
and the management is satisfied that the candidate is qualified, the
manager concerned approves the appointment of this person and the
employment letter containing the terms and conditions of employment
and reporting date is sent to the qualified candidate.

TASKS

 Discuss the importance of the Factories Act and the Trade Unions Act in
the employee selection process.

 What is meant by the term screening?

 What is the purpose of screening and how well is it achieved?
 Which are the best methods of recruitment for positions below supervisory
level?

PLACEMENT AND ORIENTATION OR INDUCTION

PLACEMENT
PLACEMENT refers to assigning rank and responsibility to an individual,
identifying him with a particular job. It is the determination of the job to
which an accepted candidate is to be assigned and his assignments
for that particular job. It is a matching of what the supervisor has
reason to think the candidate can do with the job demands (job
requirements).

If the person adjusts himself to the job and continues to perform as per
expectations, it might mean that the candidate is properly placed.
However, if the candidate is seen to have problems in adjusting himself
to the job, the supervisor must find out whether the person is properly
placed as per his aptitude and potential. Placement problems usually
arise out of wrong selection or improper placement or both. Cases of
employees performing below expectation and potential, and
employee related problems such as turnover, absenteeism, low
morale, accidents etc may be related to placement problems.

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ORIENTATION/INDUCTION
Induction is the process of receiving employees when they begin work,
introducing them to the company and their colleagues and informing
them of the activities, customs and traditions of the company.

Induction refers to the introduction of a new person to the job and the
organisation. The purpose is to make this person feel at ease and
develop a sense of pride in the organisation and a commitment to the
job. The process is supposed to indoctrinate, orient, acclimatize and
acculturate the employee to the job and the organisation. Induction
may be regarded as the beginning of training or the final stage of the
selection process.

Objectives of induction
A new employee in an organisation is a stranger to the people, the
workplace and the work environment. He may feel insecure, shy and
nervous. The first few days may be full of anxiety – caused by not being
able to follow the new practices, procedures and lack of
understanding of the new policies. If such a person is left unattended,
he may develop discouragement, disillusion or even defensive
behaviour. Induction is therefore supposed to reduce this feeling to the
most comfortable level possible.

The induction process provides new employees with basic background

information they need to perform their jobs satisfactorily – a process
that is part of the new employees socialization (socialization is the
ongoing process of instilling in all employees the prevailing attitudes,
standards, values and patterns of behaviour that are expected by the
organisation and its departments.

Objectives of an induction programme therefore are:

o Introduce the new employee to the new work procedures, rules
and regulations.
o Familiarize the new employee with his work environment,
workmates and immediate supervisor or departmental head.
o Set a new employee at ease with his new job and instil
confidence in him.
o Reduce fear and anxiety associated with working in new
environments. Feelings of insecurity, shyness and nervousness are
therefore reduced.

Induction Procedure
An induction process consists of two stages; the introduction to the
work group and introduction to the organisations background.

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An organisation has an obligation to make integration of a new
employee into its setup as smooth and as anxiety free as possible. This
is achieved through a formal and also informal induction process. Such
programmes depend on the size of the organisation and the
complexity of individuals in the new environment.

Some organisations have developed formal orientation programmes;

which include a detailed process of introduction to the work, the
workplace and its environment and the organisation.

New employees usually get a handbook or printed materials that cover

issues such as working hours, performance reviews, getting on the
payroll, vacations and a tour of the facilities. Other handbook
information includes; personnel policies, the employees daily routine,
company organisation and operations and safety and health
measures and regulations.

Other organisations may utilize informal orientation programmes, which

might include being assigned to a senior worker who will not only
introduce the new worker to other members of staff but also show him
other things of interest. However, this must be done carefully as there
are possible negative effects of an informal orientation programme.

 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of an informal staff orientation process

 What are the disadvantages of the formal staff orientation programmes?

Formal orientation programmes usually cover such things like

introduction to the work itself; its processes, tasks, procedures and
responsibilities and the terms and conditions of employment;
compensation, benefits, personnel policies, employees’ daily routine,
company organisation and operations, safety and health among other
things. The supervisors may have a checklist of requirements for the
induction process.

This may include;

o Word of welcome.
o Explanation of overall departmental organisation and its
relationship to other activities of the company.
o Explaining employee’s individual contributions to the objectives
of the department and his broad terms.
o Discussing job content with employee and give him a copy of
the job description if available.
o Explaining departmental training programmes and salary
increase practices and procedures.
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o Discussing where the employee lives and transport facilities
provided by the company.
o Explaining working conditions.
o Hours of work
o Use of employee entrance and exit.
o Lunch hours
o Coffee breaks
o Personal telephone calls and internet/e-mail usage.
o Overtime policy and requirements.
o Other issues – safety habits and security arrangements.
o Requirement for continuance of employment – explaining
company standards as regards the:
o Performance of duties.
o Attendance and punctuality.
o Handling confidential information.
o Behaviour
o General appearance
o Wearing of uniform (where applicable)
o Introducing the new staff member to manager and other
personnel and supervisors of the company. Special attention
should be paid to the staff member to whom the new employee
will be assigned.
o Releasing the new employee to his immediate supervisor who will
then:
- Introduce the new staff to fellow workers.
- Familiarize the employee with his new workplace.
- Begin the on the job training.

 What in your opinion are the likely consequences to an organisation, of a poorly

conducted induction process?

 What are some of the issues likely to be addressed by a placement and

induction/orientation policy?

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 TOPIC 5: LEGISLATION GOVERNING EMPLOYMENT IN KENYA
THE EMPLOYMENT ACT: CHAPTER 226 (Revised 1984)

Specific objectives of the topic:

At the end of this topic, the trainee should be able to:-

o Discuss the legislation relevant to employment in Kenya.

o Apply the provisions of the legislation to given practical situations
in the organisation.

The Employment Act is an Act of Parliament to consolidate with

amendments of the law relating to employment and for matters
incidental thereto and connected therewith.

Exemptions to the Provision of the Act

The Provisions of the Act shall not apply to: -

o The Armed Forces or the reserve
o Kenya Police, Kenya Prisons Service, Administration Police Force
o National Youth Service
o Such person or class such trade or industry or such public body
as the Minister may exempt.

Definition

The Act defines a casual employee as an individual the terms of whose

engagement provide for his payment at the end of each day and who
is not engaged for a longer period than 24 hrs at a time.

A child is any individual who has not attained the age of 16 years.

A contract of service: - an agreement, whether oral or written, and

whether expressed or implied, to employ or to serve as an employee
for any period of time and includes a contract of apprenticeship and
indentured learnership.

Piecework: -means any work the pay for which is estimated by the
amount of work performed irrespective of the time occupied by its
performance.

Conditions of Employment
Payment disposal and Recovery of Wages, Allowances

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The entire amount of the wages earned by and payable to an
employee shall be paid to him directly in the currency of Kenya.
Provision may be paid with the consent of the employee for such an
amount to be paid into; an account at a bank, by cheque, postal or
money order, to any person (in the absence, but with consent of the
employee).

Payment of wages shall be made on a working, during working hours,

at or near to the place of employment. Wages payment shall not be
made in any place where liquor is sold.

The employee may recover any balance due him from an employee’s
salary.

No employer shall dictate to an employee how to dispose his wages.

When wages are due:

In the case of a contract for performance of a task or piecework –
when a task has not been completed, at the option of his employer, to
be paid at the end of the day in proportion to work done.

To complete the task of on the following day, in which case be entitled

to full pay at the end completion of the task.

In the case of piecework –to be paid at the end of each month in

proportion of work done or completion of the work, whichever date is
earlier.

The times when wages shall be deemed due shall be as follows: -

o For casual employees – at the end of the day.

o For someone employed for a period more than a day but not
exceeding one month, at the end of that period.
o For someone employed for a period exceeding one month, at the
end of each month.
o For someone employed for an indefinite period or on a journey, at
the expiry of each month, or on completion of the journey.

These provisions shall not affect an order or award of the industrial

court, or an agreement between employer and employee, whose
terms are favourable to the employee.

Where an employee is summarily dismissed for lawful cause, he shall be

paid on dismissal all moneys, allowances and benefits due to him up to
the date of his dismissal.
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Upon termination of a contract the employer must ensure the
employee is paid the entire amount of wages earned and payable to
him and also the allowances due.

No wages will be paid to the employee in respect to of a period during

which he is detained or serving a sentence imposed under the law.

Deductions from Wages.

An employer may deduct from the wages of his employee: -

o Any amount as a contribution to any provident fund or any other

scheme approved by the Labour Commissioner, to which the
employee has agreed to contribute.
o A reasonable amount for any damage or loss of any property
lawfully in the possession or custody of the employer caused by
wilful default of the employee.
o An amount not exceeding one day’s wages in respect of each
working day for the whole of which the employee, without leave or
other lawful cause, absents himself from work.
o An amount equal to the amount of any shortage of money arising
through the negligence or dishonestly of the employee whose
contract provides he be entrusted with the receipt, custody and
payment of money.
o Any amount paid to the employee in error as wages in excess of the
amount of wages due to him.
o Any amount of the deduction of which is authorized by any written
Law for the time being in force.
o Any amount, not of benefit to the employer and which the
employee has requested the employer in writing to deduct from his
wages.
o Any amount due to the employer as repayment of a loan, but not
exceeding 50% of the wages payable to the employee.
o Such other amounts as the Minister may prescribe.

No deductions shall be made from the wages, as an advance of

wages in consideration of, or as a reward, for the provision of
employment to the worker or for retaining him in employment.

At any one time, the total amount of deductions shall not exceed half
of such wages.

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Leave, Housing, Health & Welfare.

Every employee shall be entitled to Leave: -

o After every 12 consecutive months of service with his employer to

not less than 21 working days of leave with full pay.
o Where employment is terminated after the completion of 2 or more
consecutive months of service during any 12 months’ leaving-
earning period, to not less than one and three-quarter days of leave
with full pay, for each completed month of service in that period, to
be taken consecutively.
o A woman employee shall be entitled to two months maternity leave
with full pay. Such a woman, who has taken 2-months maternity
leave, shall forfeit her annual leave in that year.
o After 2 consecutive months of service with his employer, an
employee shall be entitled to sick leave of not less than seven days
with days with full pay and thereafter to sick leave of seven days
with half pay, in each period of 12 consecutive months of service.
Such will be granted on production of a certificate of incapacity,
signed by a medical practitioner.

o The leave granted to an employee in (i) above shall be additional

to all public holidays, weekly rest days and any sick leave.

o Every employee shall be entitled to at least one rest day in every

period of seven days.

Housing:
Every employer shall at all, at his own expense, provide reasonable
housing accommodation for each of employees, or shall pay to the
employee such sufficient as rent, in addition to his wages or salary, as
will enable the employee to obtain reasonable accommodation.

Water:
Every employer shall provide a sufficient supply of wholesome water for
the use of his employees at the place of employment and within a
reasonable distance of any housing accommodation provided for
them by him.

Food:
Every employee shall, where the provision of food has been expressly
agreed to in or at the time of entering into a contract of service, ensure
that every employee is properly fed and supplied with sufficient and
proper cooking utensils and means of cooking, at the employer’s
expense. These provisions shall not be deemed to impose upon an
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employer any liability in respect of any employee during the time such
an employee is absent from his place of employment without the
permission of the employer or without lawful expense.

Medical Attention:
Every employer shall ensure the provision for his employees of proper
medicines during illnesses and of medical attendance during serious
illness, and shall take all measures to ensure the illness is brought to his
notice.

Death of an employee:
The employer shall inform the labour officer or DC of the areas where
the employee was employed upon learning of his death. He will then
pay to this officer or DC all wages due to the employee at the date of
his death and shall deliver to him all property belonging to the
deceased employee for transmission to the person legally entitled to.

Contracts of Service, Termination, Dismissal, etc.

Every contract of service for a period equivalent to 6 working months or
more or one which provides for the performance of any specified work,
to be completed in a period equivalent to 6 months or more shall be in
writing. The employee may either sign on it or imprint the impression of
his thumb /fingers as a sign of consent.

The employer is the one who will ensure the contract is drawn up and
consented upon.

Termination
Every contract of service not being a contract to perform some
specific work, and with no reference to time or to undertake a journey:

o Where it is a contract to pay wages daily, be terminable by

either party at the close of any day, without notice.
o Where it is a contract where wages are paid periodically, at
intervals of less than one month, a contract terminable by either
party at the end of the period next following the giving notice in
writing.
o Where a contract to pay wages or salaries periodically at
intervals of or not exceeding one month, a contract terminable
by either party at the end of the period of 28 days next
following the giving of notice in writing.

Either party may terminate the contract without notice upon payment
to the other party of wages or salary, which have been earned by the
other party in respect of the period of notice required to be given.
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A contract of service shall not be terminated on account of
redundancy unless the following conditions are complied with: -

The employees union or the areas labour officer is informed of the

reasons, for and extent of the intended redundancy.

The employer shall have due regard to seniority in time and in skill,
ability and reliability of each employee of the particular class of
employees affected by the redundancy.

No employee shall be placed at a disadvantage for being or not

being a member of the trade union.

Any leave due to any employee who is declared redundant shall be

paid off in cash.

Any employee declared redundant shall be entitled to one month’s

notice or one month’s pay in lieu of notice.

An employee declared redundant shall be entitled to severance pay

at the rate of not less than 15 days pay for each completed year of
service as severance pay.

Summary dismissal
The following matters may amount to gross misconduct and may justify
the summary dismissal of an employee: -

o If without leave or lawful cause, an employee absents himself

from his place of work – the workstation.
o If, during working hours, by becoming intoxicated or being
intoxicated, an employee renders himself unwilling or incapable
to perform his work.
o If the employee wilfully neglects to perform any work, which it
was his duty to perform, or if he carelessly and improperly
performs any work which he should have performed carefully
and proper.
o If an employee uses abusive or insulting language, or behaves in
a manner insulting to his employer or to a person placed in
authority over him by his employer.
o If the employee knowingly fails or refuses to obey a lawful and
proper command which it was within the scope of his duty to
obey, issued by his employer or a person placed in authority over
him by his employer.

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 o If the employee is arrested for an offence punishable by
imprisonment and is not within 10 days either released on bail or
on bond or set at liberty.
o If the employee commits or is suspected of having committed a
criminal offence against or at the detriment of his employers
property.

Certificate of Service.

Every employee who has worked for a period of more than 4

consecutive weeks is entitled to a certificate of service, which shall
contain: -

o Name and postal address of his employer

o Name of employee
o Date when employment commenced
o Nature and usual place of employment
o Date when employment ceased
o Such other particulars as may be prescribed.

No employer is bound to give am employee a testimonial, reference or

certificate relating to the character or performance of an employee.

A foreign contract of service is a contract of service made within

Kenya and to be performed in all or part outside Kenya. Such a
contract of service shall be binding; when the labour office is satisfied;

o That the employee’s consent has been given.

o There was no coercion, fraud or undue influence to the
employee to enter the contract.
o The contract is in the prescribed form.
o That the terms and conditions of employment are within the
provisions of the Employment Act 226, and are understood by
the employee.
o That the employee is medically fit for the performance of his
duties under the contract.
o That the employee is not to serve under any other contract of
service during the period provided in the foreign contract.

o No child shall be employed in an industrial undertaking. The

provisions do not apply to the employment of a child in an
industrial undertaking.
o The provisions of the Act shall not cover a child duly employed
under the provisions of the Industrial Training Act.
o No child shall be employed in attendance on machinery.
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 o No child shall be employed in any open-cast workings or sub-
surface workings which are entered by means of a shaft or adit.

No woman or juvenile shall be employed between the hours of 6.30 pm

and 6.30 am in an industrial undertaking. The women and young
persons may only be employed in such circumstances,

o In cases of emergencies, that are unforeseen and which interfere

with normal work.
o Where their work is connected with raw materials, which need
their presence during such hours to preserve the material from
certain loss.
o Women, holding positions of managerial or technical nature or
employed in health and welfare services and not manual work.
o In cases of emergencies, the Minister may suspend, by Gazette
Notice, the above section as it affects women and male young
persons.

No female shall be employed on underground work in a mine, EXCEPT,

in the following circumstances.

o One holding a management position and does not perform

manual work.
o One engaged in health or welfare services.
o One, who is in the course of her studies, spends a period of time
training in the underground parts of the mine.
o One who for some reason is forced to enter the mine on a non-
manual occupation?

Employees who employ a juvenile must keep and maintain a register of

their age or date of birth, date of entry into and leaving the
employment and any such other particulars as may be prescribed.

An authorized officer may require any juvenile in employment

to be medically examined at any time during the period of his
employment.

During the hearing of a charge for an offence under this Act, the court
may for its own reasons determine the Age of such person, using other
available evidence and if not available, using a medical officer.

If a labour officer deems it that the employer is an undesirable persons,

or that the employment is immoral, dangerous or likely to be injurious to
one’s health, he may by notice in writing served to the employer,
prohibit him from employing juveniles.
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GENERAL PROVISIONS.
Every employer shall keep a written record of all employees employed
by him and maintain their personnel details and avail them for
inspection by an authorized officer.
Nothing in this Act, shall prevent an employer or employee from being
proceeded against according to law for an offence punishable under
any law in force.

AN AUTHORIZED OFFICER
Every authorized officer shall be given a certificate of his appointment,
by the labour commissioner.

Such a person will notify the employer or his representative on

inspection or visit, of his presence unless such notification is seen
prejudicial to the performance of the inspector’s duties. He will, if
requested, produce his certificate of appointment for the attention of
the employer.

Powers of Authorized Officers

o Enter, inspect and examine any land or building or other
structure on which he has reasonable ground for believing that
an employee is living, residing or employed; so as to determine
whether the provisions of the Act are being complied with.
o Require an employer to produce an employee in his
employment and a document relating to the employment.
o Examine and take copies of a register, record, book or other
document relating to employment and take possession of that
register, record, book or other document which he has reason to
believe may contain evidence of an offence under this Act.
o Enter, inspect and examine all latrines and other sanitary
arrangements or water supply.
o Inspect and examine all food provided or appearing to be
provided for the use of employees and take samples, in the
presence of the employer, seal one for taking away and another
to be left with the employer.
o Order that all buildings and premises where employees are
housed or employed be kept clean and in good sanitary
conditions.
o Institute proceedings in respect of any contravention or any
offence committed by an employer under this Act.
o Institute on behalf of any employee in any civil proceedings by
an employee against his employer in respect of any matter,
thing arising out of employment.
o Take custody and return to his parent or guardian or other
person, any child employed in contravention of this Act.
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 o Subject to any direction of the labour commissioner, delegate to
any labour inspector any of the powers conferred upon him
under this section.

Powers of a Medical Officer

Medical Officer (See Act Cap. 226.P.5)
o A medical officer means: -
o A medical practitioner registered under the Medical Practitioners
and Dentists Act.
o A person licensed under Section 13 of the Medical Practitioners
and Dentists Act.
o The Medical Officer of Health of any local authority for the
purposes of the Public Health Act.

A medical officer may for the purposes of this Act exercise the powers
conferred upon an authorized officer by points (a) and (f) under the
authorized officer.

o Order an employee, who he thinks is sick and for whom the

conditions prevailing at the place of employment are not
conducive to the rapid recovery of his health or strength to
return to his engagement or to proceed to hospital. The
employer shall at the earliest opportunity and at his own expense
send the employee to his place of engagement or to the
hospital.
o Condemn any food for employees which, in his opinion is unfit for
human consumption, and all food so condemned shall be
destroyed forthwith in his presence.
o Condemn any building or other structure, whether permanent or
temporary in which an employee is living, residing or employed –
in his opinion, it is unfitted by reason of its construction, situation
or condition for the purpose to which it is put.
o Order at the expense of the employer such variety of food for an
employee as he may deem necessary – provided that the cost
of the food supplied under such order shall not exceed the
normal cost of rations ordinarily supplied by employers to
employees in that area.
o Order the employer to supply an employee working under a
written contract of service with one or more blankets or with
clothing and such cost is to be deducted from the employee’s
wages.
o Inspect all drugs and medicines provided for the use of
employees.

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RULES
The minister may make rules providing for all or any of the purposes that
may be convenient for the administration of this Act. This may include: -
o Prescribing anything under this Act that is to be or may be
prescribed.
o Controlling the conditions under which employees may be
housed or employed, including sanitary arrangements and water
supply.
o Controlling the feeding of the employees in cases where food is
to be supplied by the employer under the contract of service –
Quantity, variety, etc.
o Regulating the care of sick and injured employees.
o Prescribing books to be kept & returns to be rendered by
employers.
o Prescribing: -
o For any period the maximum number of hours an employee will
be required to work.
o Intervals to be allowed to them for meals and rest.
o Holidays or half – holidays allowed to them.
o Any other conditions of employment.
o Appoint labour supervisors where employees of one employer
exceed maximum allowed.
o Registration and employment of casual employees.
o Establishment and administration of employment exchanges.
o Prohibiting where necessary, employment of women, young
persons or children in specified trades or occupations.
o Requiring employers of children to furnish information and returns
to any specified officer in respect of such children.
o The issue by employers or any class of employers to employees in
relation to any particular kind of employment, employment
cards, etc.
o Prescribing particulars to be included in Certificate of Service.
o Prescribing the form and providing for the display in places of
employment, of notices relating to wages and the terms and
conditions of employment.

What are the powers of the Labour officer and medical officer as regards the
ensurance of the welfare of the workers?

In what particular instances would you consider the Act outdated and in need
of a review

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