Challenges in Recruitments & Selection Process

With the new technology coming into the process, various challenges also have appeared as discussion points. (Farr and Tippins 2010).  According to the details given by Farr, and Tippins (2010), below are a few challenges in the current environment.

1. Examinee identification – Challenges to verifying the person who is attending the test on the internet is the real candidate
2. Additional cost to use advanced technology – Additional cost to implement biometric verification, real-time video communication, and other technology to verify the examinee identification
3. Security on internet-based tests
4. Inability to control the test environment such as unforeseen hardware and software issues, internet connection issues, etc, etc. 

Figure 01: Highest-Impact Strategic Recruitment Challenges

Source: Djabatey, 2012

In some cases, there can be candidates who don’t have the required qualifications but with high skill levels and competencies but will not capture into the requirement process (Djabatey, 2012). Hence discovering the best candidate from an underqualified pool of applicants will be a challenge. In a situation like this, the best candidate would be selected rather than the most suitable person for the job. In such a situation, the learning and development capacity of the candidate should also be evaluated by the organization (Djabatey, 2012). 

Also, candidates who are eligible would be contacted by recruiters regularly, and candidates with rare difficult-to-find skill sets consider several job offers at the same time (Rehman, 2012). Therefore, extra effort must be put into such cases to persuade such candidates to select the recruiter’s company over other companies. Further, the candidates will also negotiate, and the negotiations should be compatible with the company policies and standards which is a great challenge faced by modern organizations (Rehman, 2012).

 Further, HR teams whose task is to hire new candidates for the workplace have to find new candidates as fast as possible whenever a position is open. Usually, this time period will be the resignation time allowed by the resigned employee and the HR department should fulfill the position immediately to reduce, delays and bottlenecks in the organization’s processes. Hence, fast firing is a challenge (Louw, 2013).  

Unconscious biases are usually the basis for many companies to be unable to attract ad recruit diverse candidates (Collings, 2014). Employing objectively helps a company as it lets recruiters hire the best person for a certain work without stereotypes interfering other than just providing legal obligations. Hence, referrals from the top management and their personal recommendations will provide biases for the selected candidate and this is a challenge in recruiting the right candidate for the job (Collings, 2014) 

Further, better candidates are attracted and engaged if the recruiter has a good employer brand (Zhao & Liden, 2011). More candidates will be willing to work for a popular and a large-scale employer even at a lower salary scale than a small-scale business. Hence, attracting the best candidates for the small and medium scale organizations which have less employer brand value is a challenge (Zhao & Liden, 2011).   

Due to the higher costs associated with the selection processes, employers use only one or two selection methods, and not all selection methods to test a wide range of employee capabilities are used. This will neglect some of the aspects that are required in the job and will select an incompatible employee for the job at times (Caers & Castelyns, 2011). Therefore, organizations should use a wide range of selection methods in selecting the best candidate for the organization.

Further, when recruiting and selecting the candidate, the employee should be fit with the organizational culture, and identifying the cultural fit of the candidate before the appointment is a challenge of recruitment and selection (Caers & Castelyns, 2011). The organization could evaluate the Hofstede cultural dimensions of the organization and compatible candidates should be recruited and selected according to these dimensions in reducing the challenges faced by the recruitment of an inappropriate cultural fit (Caers & Castelyns, 2011).

In minimizing the challenges faced in the selection and recruitment in attracting the best candidate, human resource management theories could also be used

References

Caers, R. and Castelyns, V, 2011, ‘LinkedIn and Facebook in Belgium: The influences and biases of social network sites in recruitment and selection procedures’, Social Science Computer Review, Article in Social Science Computer Review, vol. 29, no. 4, viewed 5^th May 2022, SAGE, pp. 437-48.

 

Collings, DG 2014, ‘Integrating global mobility and global talent management: Exploring the challenges and strategic opportunities, Journal of World Business, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 253-61.

 

Djabatey, EN 2012, Recruitment and Selection Practices of Organisations: A Case Study of HFC Bank (Gh) Ltd, Institute of Distance Learning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

 

Farr, JL and Tippins, NT 2010, Hand Book of Employee Selection, Routledge, UK.

 

Louw, GJ 2013, ‘Exploring recruitment and selection trends in the Eastern Cape’, SA Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 11 no. 1, viewed 5^th May 2022, <https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC141228>

 

Rehman, S 2012, ‘A Study of Public Sector Organizations with Respect to Recruitment, Job Satisfaction and Retention, Global Business & Management Research, vol. 4, no. 1.