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This assignment is available on the internet, to help students understand the type of work required for this unit of the GNVQ Business Advanced course. The students that have permitted the use of their assignment in this way do not allow the assignment to be submitted under any another name beside their own. It is against the law to submit an assignment which you have not done yourself.
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You may notice that many assignments are written in response to a given brief. These should be available soon.
This is a general illustration of the recruitment procedure from when a job is available to when it is filled by the right applicant. I have designed this so that it is from a general perspective and not from just the employer or employees', it shows all stages of job recruitment.
The first thing that an employer will do which has a vacant job is to produce a revised job description for the job being offered so that there will be sufficient details for the advert and for the interviewer when applicant are interviewed it helps outline the tasks that someone will have to be able to do. Throughout this report I shall refer to two jobs as an example one Trainee Accountant position at a local business and another for a Chief Financial Officer for an international company. Below is an example of two job descriptions.
Job Description for Trainee Accountant
The applicant will be responsible for overseeing the auditing of a company's accountant and preparing accounts ready for inspection and analysis. The applicant will be directly responsible to the partners of CREERS, and for the specific clientele. The role will require a broad knowledge of accountancy and the applicant must be able to communicate clearly with the client. The trainee will have to show a willingness to learn and be genuinely interested in accountancy. Depending on the person's specific interests the role can be moulded accordingly.
Job Description for Chief Financial Officer
The applicant must be able to manage several units within a vital department to the business. The applicant will be responsible to the Chief Executive Officer and for the critical department. The role requires work leading to the development of the annual financial plan reporting internally and externally.
The job specification is also written up at this stage, the job specification shows the desirable skills of an applicant for the job in question. It will identify attributes for a job which are essential and desirable, this helps assist in the recruitment process. Below are two examples of a job specification.
Job Specification for Trainee Accountant
The trainee accountant must have the ability to be able to communicate on a number of different levels, to provide the partners and the client a good clear understanding of accountancy and its functions. There should be an excellent well spoken individual with an ability to concentrate on a specific task in hand. The candidate should have no hesitation to seek advice and extra assistance where needed. However, it expected that the applicant can work well without continual supervision.
There should be a willingness to learn to progress further, and to keep with changes in the profession. "A" levels and Advanced GNVQ's are essential to aquire the Accountant Trainee position. The applicant will need to work out of hours to help improve the knowledge required for the academic qualification which is essential for progress with the company.
Any prior knowledge of accountancy is desirable. In addition any experience acquired in accountancy should also prove helpful.
Job Specification for Chief Financial Officer
Candidates need to be a qualified certified public accountant with undergraduate work and possibly graduate work with a major college or university. The candidate must have had a minimum of ten years experience with at least five in a senior management role.
The applicant must have exceptional leadership qualities including strong communication skills. Attention to planning, process and detail are a must. Ideally should have major accomplishments within the last two years.
Once the job description and job specification have been established, the employer can use the information to write an advertisement for the post being offered. The advertising that a company does to offer job vacancies depends greatly on what job is being offered to how it is advertised. For example a Managing Directors job would be advertised in specific high class magazines, journals and broad sheet newspapers. Jobs such as cashiers and supervisors will usually be advertised in a local paper and a jobs paper, because these are jobs that many people can do with little extra skills. Job vacancies will be targeted at a particular audience.
On the following two pages I have a copy of two adverts offering jobs, due to the jobs being so different, one for an experienced person, the other for a school leaver they were advertised in different media. The Chief Financial Officer was advertised on a site in the internet, called "TOP JOBS USA". This is a very modern way of advertising jobs and in the UK this hasn't really caught on as much as America.
The advert for a Trainee Accountant was advertised in the Local Evening Press newspaper. This shows the vast difference in the marketing for a significant job compared to a minor one.
As soon as an advert has been made people looking for a new job will decide whether or not to apply to it, should they decide that they want to they may have to request for an application form. This is usually done by writing to the person concerned or by telephone to get the form quicker. Businesses offering a vast amount of 'Popular' jobs will have application forms because then only people seriously interested in joining the company will request the form. This helps distinguish between those people which simply apply to every organisation attaching their CV.
Alternatively you may be requested to send a letter of application to the employer with a current CV attached. Examples of letters which you would send to an employer along with the CV are shown on the next two pages, one for the Accountancy Trainee position and the other for the Chief Financial Officer.
The letter of application should always be neat and tidy and presented well, ideally word processed. The employer sees these and instantly makes a mental note of what you are like and if that isn't too good then the application will be discarded immediatly. The same applies for the CV, although to some extent its contents are more important. The CV is what you use to sell yourself to the employer, you have to show your qualities and what you have achieved throughout your working life. The CV I have written is not very interesting becuase at this stage of my life I am only upto the education section. However, when you look at the other CV on the next page and the CV's at the back of this assignment you can see how interesting they are to read.
As soon as the employer has looked over the CV and the letter of application they will have a good idea whether you are capable for the job, those which can match or better the job description and job specification. Those which are capable and have a good, well presented CV should be offered an interview or selected to attend an assessment centre where then can be tested in various ways.
Self Assessment Interview Form
Position Applied for:__________________ Location:________________________
Interviewer:_____________ Date and time:__/__/__ __:__
Score (5-excellent)
Performance
Eye contact 1 2 3 4 5
Body Language 1 2 3 4 5
Dress 1 2 3 4 5
Appearing confident 1 2 3 4 5
Asking/Answering Questions 1 2 3 4 5
Accuracy 1 2 3 4 5
Verbal Communication 1 2 3 4 5
Notes:
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Interview Appraisal Form
Name of job Applicant:___________________ Position Applied for:____________
Interviewer:_____ Date and time: __/__/__ __:__ Location: _______________
Level required for job Level obtained
1. Punctuality 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
2. Appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
3. Experience 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
4. Enthusiasm 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
5. Suitability 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
6. Knowledge of business 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
7. Knowledge of job tasks 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
8. Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
9. Physicality needed for job 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
10.Numeracy skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
11.Computer literacy 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
12.Attitude 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 X
The "X" means that the applicant is unsuitable for the position applied for. A
comment must be put next to the column where it has been circled.
Totals: _______ _______
Where level obtained same or higher than required level tick
Further Comments
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Interview Evaluation
I decided to have someone who has a job interview me becuase it gave her the opportunity to experience interviewing and helped me for this assignment. I was applying for the position of Trainee Acoountant for a small local business. The interview was started when I walked in the Dining Room, this was the location. I walked in and I was told to take a seat and make myself comfortable. The interviewer was helpful, more so than I had expected. My written application and CV was in the interviewers hands and she asked me questions about my interests.
As I was talking through the interview the interviewer made notes on a piece of paper, she was recording my progress. She of the questions that were asked were too difficult and I was unable to answer them, they were about the company. I wasn't prepared to answer questions on the history of the business, I expected questions just on the job in question and what I would have to do.
At the end of the interview I was told that there were still a few more applicants to be seen and then they would get back to me as to whether or not I get the job. I then filled out my own self-assessment form to show how I thought the interview went.
After I had filled it in and made a few comments I looked at the notes which had been made as the interview was going on. I was very surprised to see the difference in opinion we had. I expected to be rejected, my comments had affected the scoring that I had been given although to a lesser extent than I would have predicted. It looks as though I would have had a good chance of getting the job after all.
If I took part in the interview again I would be able to do better knowing the mistakes I did this time, it has been a worth while exercise.
Legal obligations that are taken into account during the recruitment procedure
The most important legal constraint involved in the recruitment process is that of equal opportunities. When I was looking through some of the adverts for jobs in the national papers I noticed some of them had clearly identified themselves as equal opportunity employers. It was mentioned in the letter from Ken Bailleu that he blames employers for not using the equal opportunities rule with age descrimination. He is out of work and aged 49 finding it difficult to get a job becuase employers want younger people who are more productive and can stay with a company for longer.
Equal opportunities can cover may areas to do with recruitment such as sex discrimination, women need to be given the same opportunities to join a company as men. Their pay needs to be equal to that of men doing the same job. Employers need to have equal opportunities for ethnic minorities and not show any discrimination.
These are really the only main points of legal obligations that are taken account during the recruitment procedure.
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