Recruitement and Selection – Topic 1

The act of selecting and recruiting is a complex and vitally important process for any organization. It not only requires knowledge and understanding of the best practices for sifting through the applicants and/or available human resources to fill in the requirements of the work, but the mastery of the legal and ethical environment of recruitment. This ensures humans are given equal treatment in the job market as well as the workplace. (Gomez-Meija, Balkin & Cardy 2016)

The prerequisite for employment is determining the organizations need for particular skills needed to accomplish the work required. This is called the human resource process (HRP). It is the act of utilizing a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods in estimating the demand for labor and its availability in the future. Recruitment decisions are then made based on those forecasts. (Gomez-Meija, Balkin & Cardy 2016)

When the choice of who should make the hiring decisions has been made, it is time to attract candidates and select the best ones fitted for the job. Recruiting of qualified candidates can be done internally or externally, making sure that they fit the organizations HRP plan. Selecting the right fit can be done using several methods that include interviews, application forms, letters of recommendation, focusing on the most reliable, valid and legally defensible ones. Eg. Personality tests are an attractive way of selection, although extra care should be taken with them, as they can be unreliable and often not based on solid scientific grounds. (Gomez-Meija, Balkin & Cardy 2016)

Proper recruitment process also entails many legal and ethical challenges which need to be fully understood to avoid legal troubles and to be able to act ethically. Laws and regulations regarding recruitment and employment are complex and ever changing, which is why special legal council is often required. (Gomez-Meija, Balkin & Cardy 2016) Legal aspects to take extra care on are country specific equal employment opportunity laws. These are laws which usually prohibit discrimination based on persons characteristics and personal background and ideology, such as sex, race, sexual orientation and religious ideology. Following these laws makes sure that the firm’s human resources are set on solid legal grounds and avoids legal liabilities. (Gomez-Meija, Balkin & Cardy 2016)

Case: What is was really like working as an Abercrombie model

Abercrombie’s recruitment process in the case presented is outright discriminatory, predatory and ethically challenged. The person in question was hired purely on their physical appearance according to the company’s ides of “attractiveness”. Instead of “customer service officer” or similar, the staff was called “models”. In addition, their recruitment was heavily in favor of white racial features, and clearly discriminated against people of color. As expected, the company faced many legal troubles and punitive measures. (Cook, Huffington Post 2015)

Most countries’ equal employment opportunity laws forbid discrimination based on race or racial features. This is something Abercrombie did in their recruitment process. This kind of adverse behavior is not only illegal because it puts certain groups of people in a disadvantage in the job market, but also reinforces negative stereotypes and general discrimination in the society it takes place in.

Footnote: Although the course book “Managing human resources” particularly mentions U.S. specific laws regarding equal employment opportunity, I chose not to mention them specifically and instead chose to go with the general assumption that most western nations have similar laws in place. This is because I wish to discuss the challenges in semi-global scale, and not only in the U.S.

Sources

Luis R. Gomez-Meija, David B. Balkin & Robert L. Cardy 2016. Managing human resources. 8th ed. Pearson Education. London.

Alicia Cook 2015. What it was really like working as an Abercrombie “model”. Huffington Post.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-it-was-really-like-working-as-an-abercrombie-model_b_7154042?guccounter=1