Ever since, passing out I have been working in HR Consulting area and had never been an avid recruiter. In a way, I was away from some of the routine line HR functions like Leave and Attendance management, Recruitment, IR, Labour Laws, Legal compliance etc...
However, I tried to keep myself updated with these things through reading about this functions. Recruitment has been always a function of fancy to me and was always fascinated by it. During school days, I was very keen on recruitment function as I firmly believed (and still believe) that it is the first and foremost import task of HR as it is the foundation of the success of the organisation.....through providing right skill set to the organisation....by filling the gap of the expertise that the organisation needs in order to succeed. Following are some of my insight of recruitment function:
What did I dream of Recruiting function?
Well, I always dreamed about sitting in a interview and analysing the person carefully in order to find out the "right things" about him/her. The "right things" can be defined as knowing his personality, understanding his behaviour/response/reaction in given circumstances, his decision making ability and the ability to contribute to the function...and this I thought, was a very challenging job....i even tried learning Psychometric testing (one of my favourite books Leadership from Within by Peter Urs Bender) in order to completely understand the person's psychometric tendencies..and I felt the real challenge of the recruiting was to understand our requirement (organisation's) and the offering of the candidate!
What is Recruiting now a Days?
Well now a days, Recruitment is even more challenging....but unfortunately, it is not in terms of "finding the right candidate"..but it is more about "meeting the targets"...IT firms have initiated the concept of specialised position of "recruiter" who would do nothing but recruitment...Due to high attrition, Recruiters are given target of recruiting XYZ no. of employees in a given time and this has led to the deterioration of the quality of recruiting function. It has become more of a coordination (with placement agencies, candidates, management), interviewing and offering employment letters. Targets are such that minimum time is spent on checking the real "skill" of employees and per candidate interview time has significantly reduced (though I don't have statistics on this). This has lead to 1) mismatch of skills required and skills hired 2) low motivation and chaos in the job 3) high attrition (as skill set mismatch) 4) fraudulent candidates (as proper reference checks and background checks are done inappropriately). So, accordingly to me, though a highly specialised job, Recruitment function and quality of it is being deteriorated day by day....though I must agree exceptions are there.
My Experience
As a part of my recent assignment, I am involved in setting up a PMU for one of the Govt. Organisations in eastern India and I have been supporting the Govt. in finding the right people....and believe me it is so difficult to coordinate....just to appraise you on the difficulties i faced 1) identification of source of recruitment (here it was placement agencies) 2) Initiating the discussions with them 3) fixing and agreeing the terms and conditions for recruitment 4) getting approval and consent form the govt./top management for proceeding ahead with the agreed rates 5) calling CVs and shortlisting the CVs 6) scheduling the management and candidates' meetings 7) selection of right candidate 8) salary negotiation and finally 9) getting him on board through offer letter....
Believe me, in 2 weeks, I have just reached stage 6...(is it too fast???) for the 5 positions that I am looking at to recruit...uff.....
Conclusion
Process of recruitment is becoming monotonous and tiresome...it is seriously affecting the recruiters, candidates and the organisation....if we want to keep the attrition in control, may be right recruitment practice can help. Some good practices offered are written tests (for elimination - but used for mass recruitment), technical tests (mostly for IT and Technical jobs), case studies (simulation exercise), psychometric testing (to better understanding of candidate), assessment centres and competency mapping.
You can reach me at mehulbpandya@gmail.com!
Stay tuned folks!
PS: feels good to contribute to regular blogging!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
how, if you have so many things to do - and i'm not even considering the extra-curricular activities that guesthouse junta is up to these days ;) - did u manage to spare time for putting up this blog??
Well Pranav...I am seriously trying this as an alternate profession and practicing for it for future!
Wow, completely in sync with my views ! I agree with your views on Recruitment...it used to be a fascinating area which even I wanted to explore and figure out how things work..however, after being exposed to the 'intricacies' of this function - its not as exciting or interesting as one imagines it to be !!
Now u r taking things in stride..
You have done a splendid job...
I really enjoyed your suggestions and insight regarding consulting. It’s evident that you have a good amount of experience in consulting for some reputed corporations. Regarding why companies hire consultants, I do agree with the fact that they look for someone external who has an unbiased and neutral outlook. Besides, as you mentioned later, specialization is a very important thing. These companies hire consultants who specialize in a particular topic, and hence can guide the company in that particular topic, and hence can guide the company in that particular field. In addition to that, a consultant also brings a lot of experience while working with other companies, and hence he/she might have previous experience dealing with a similar situation.
Also, I do agree with the fact that to be a good consultant, one has to forego all the “egoism”. A good consultant learns from each opportunity presented and reaches out for solutions from every corner by keeping his/her eyes and ears open all the time.
Post a Comment