Chapter 2: Recruiting Employees

Question 1

What are the four criteria for good recruiting methods?

Answer 1

1. Cost
2. Speed
3. Diversity
4. Efficiency

Question 2

How do you measure cost of recruiting methods?

Answer 2

cost-per-hire is calculated as total recruiting costs/ number of new hires

Question 3

How do you measure the speed of recruiting methods?

Answer 3

time-to-fill rate is measured as length of time it takes from when job opening is announced until slot is filled

Question 4

How do you measure diversity of recruiting methods?

Answer 4

different recruitment methods access different subsets of the labor force and your recruiting methods may have important consequences in terms of diversity of applicant pool

Question 5

How do you measure efficiency of recruiting methods?

Answer 5

yield ratio is calculated as: number of ‘hirable’ applicants recruited through method X/ total number of applicants recruited through method X

Question 6

What are external recruiting methods?

Answer 6

manager’s attention is focused outside organization – people outside of firm are recruited.

Question 7

Name two examples of external recruiting methods?

Answer 7

1. Print ads and internet-based recruiting
2. Campus recruiting, search firms and employment agencies

Question 7

Name three characteristics of print ads and internet-based recruiting?

Answer 7

• Print is effective in small towns drawing on local workforces
• Internet is very effective to cast a wide net of applicants. Good place to start is employment focused websites, job boards.
• Good for passive job seekers: people that aren’t actively looking for a new job but might be interested if right job appears.
• Corporate websites post vacancies.

Question 8

What are the cons of campus recruiting, search firms and employment agencies?

Answer 8

• Use of intermediaries that will prescreen applicants using criteria set by employer. Creates diverse and prescreened applicant pool
• Cons: additional costs, giving up control, truth-in-hiring cases, slower recruitment

Question 9

What is truth-in-hiring?

Answer 9

employers are being held liable for false claims made by recruiters who misrepresented the position’s responsibilities.

Question 9

What are internal recruitment methods?

Answer 9

methods where managers focus on recruiting people already working within the firm.

Question 10

Name two internal recruiting methods?

Answer 10

1. Employee referrals
2. Job postings

Question 11

What are job postings?

Answer 11

1. Job Posting: posting jobs internally on bulletin boards or intranet. Can attract active job seekers in your organization who might otherwise be lost to a competitor.

Question 12

What are the cons of job postings?

Answer 12

1. speed of internal recruitment is unpredictable,
2. doesn’t boost workforce diversity,
3. doesn’t really solve the problem but might position employees into better, more suitable jobs.

Question 13

What are employee referrals?

Answer 13

current employees are rewarded for referring successful job candidates.

Question 14

What are the advantages of employee referrals?

Answer 14

• Extremely high yield ratio,
• very accurate prescreening, employees think carefully about their referrals because their rep is on the line

Question 15

What are instrumental characteristics in recruiting?

Answer 15

Location, benefits, products etc

Question 15

What are the three steps to implement a branding strategy?

Answer 15

1. Reflect on what is unique about your organization
2. What and How?
3. Who?

Question 16

What are symbolic characteristics in recruiting?

Answer 16

intangible, subjective and abstract elements regarding the organization’s personality.

Question 17

What are the What and How in creating a brand strategy?

Answer 17

• What: advertise the characteristics in advertising
• How: the way you recruit people

Question 18

What are low involvement recruitment strategies?

Answer 18

for companies with strong brands; employees flock to them as soon as job opening is announced.

Question 19

What are high involvement recruiting strategies?

Answer 19

for up and coming companies not yet well known by employees. Rely on testimonials from employees and recruitment brochures detailing characteristics. Have a more direct impact on org’s rep.

Question 20

What a re realistic job previes and what are their pro’s?

Answer 20

applicants learn both positive and negative job aspects. Applicants with realistic preview have higher performance and satisfaction. Can boost long-term yield ratio. Avoids bad apples in recruiting process.

Question 21

What is the who? in creating a branding strategy?

Answer 21

Consider the experience from applicant’s perspective: applicants are more attracted to a job of recruiters are personable, informative and trustworthy.

Question 22

Name three considerations when expanding your applicant pool?

Answer 22

1. Who falls outside typical applicant pool
2. How can you reach them?
3. What would attract them to your company?