Category: Recruitment

The Universities in New Zealand have very high expectations from the potential candidates for filling up the position of academic staff. They need to have at least a Ph.D. and an excellent publication record in academic journals of good impact factor. The universities follow an outdated and archaic approach through newspaper advertisements and also, by referrals from the academic staff. The recruitment process is exceptionally slow, highly decentralized and is usually accorded to the heads of academic departments, who are not trained in the recruitment process. Such an inefficiency and inadequacy in the recruitment process leading to the selection of less desirable employees. Also, another factor that hampers the recruitment of staff at the senior academic level is low remunerations, that make it almost infeasible to fill up such vacancies. The recruitment channels currently used by New Zealand Universities are inappropriate, as more nuanced research, points to the flaws present in the different recruitment channels as elicited below:

1. College placement offices:

They have a few advantages as it makes it possible to select good quality candidates within a short period and students get hired even before the completion of their course. Moreover, students undergoing an internship may have possibilities of direct recruitment to the job positions offered by companies. It also builds company loyalty and enhances selection ratio. However, it is somewhat flawed as it makes few assumptions. It considers that Individuals have already been pre-screened by their cumulative grade scores. Although these recruits can be academically well established, they would not possess relevant experience in the field. Experienced candidates are likely to perform better than the new graduates, as the latter would require additional training and constant feedback from the higher officials which prolongs their time to full productivity which also adds up to the cost of training as a mark-up over the employee’s salary.

2. Employment agencies:

The recruitment agencies hire professionals who are experts in the recruitment process and hence they can help universities to fill up vacant positions in less time. However, such recruiting agencies don’t effectively deal with the concerns that University or the employee may have. They are usually motivated by profits and have been shown to incline towards favouritism. Recruitment agencies demand a high fee from the universities for their services offered. Also, there is less possibility of universities having control over the hiring process and direct access to the candidates. There are also wide disparities among various agencies in the screening process followed by them. Some agencies screen candidates more effectively than other agencies prior to the referral. Also, individuals may favour an agency owned by a private owner or by public depending upon their abilities, skills and work ethics.

3. Newspaper advertisements:

Most of the vacancies for the post of lecturer and senior lecturer are advertised in the University Staff bulletin and on the career website of the University. The jobs at Universities in New Zealand are also advertised online in New Zealand and Australia job sites like seek and trade me. They are also given in the print media like Daily times and newspapers. It is seen that newspaper targets mostly aged and experienced job seekers. It’s advisable to advertise through social media if the university is seeking younger professionals. Also, newspaper advertising helps Universities hire locally as it specifically focuses on specific geographical location (Breaugh, 2008). So, a University can hire a similar type of applicants. To attract a different type of applicants especially from different ethnic backgrounds, it would be advisable to give advertisements for the vacancies in different types of newspapers. Moreover, some newspapers are considered more prestigious than the others; hence it could signal that top positions are advertised only in certain papers.

4. Employee referrals:

The employee referral plays a crucial role in the recruitment process especially in the context of a University. Employee referrals help in employing better quality candidates that fit for the role and it helps in higher retention. The job applicants recruited via employee referrals are more likely to be interviewed and receive jobs (Breaugh, 2008). There has been research on the use of employee referrals as a recruitment method and it is proven that employee believes that referrals offer advantages over other methods. However, few shortcomings are associated with the recruitment process such as it might lead to charges of discrimination. Few considerations must be analyzed when hiring a job applicant based on the referral i.e. if the referrer is aware of the position that is to be filled and what has been his/her past performance and if the referrer is apprehensive about his reputation.

The recruitment process is slow as the positions for new recruitments are not advertised until the incumbent leave the position and the process takes an exceedingly long time even once they have vacated. Another problem is that the brand image of University has an impact on the recruitment outcome. A positive reputation of the company increases the number of applicants thereby enhancing the ability of the University to make finer distinctions and be more selective. Universities can use advertisements and publicity to create a positive brand image which might give it a competitive advantage as its being valuable, rare, hard to imitate. It’s important to position University as a unique place to work.

The recruitment methods that could be adopted by the New Zealand universities alternative to the current methods in order to hire efficient and the most suitable employees are as follows:

Video Interviewing:

Video interviewing is one of the major academic recruitments, that has gained a wide reputation in recent times, where the applicants are asked to submit a recorded video answering the set of pre-determined questions. This method is more beneficial, especially in the case of overseas applicants. The advantages of this method are:

1. Video interviewing is helpful for applicants to schedule their interview conveniently in their own time.
2. As all the candidates are demanded to answer the same questions within the stipulated time, it will help the university to compare the answers and select the potential candidates.
3. The HR departments also require less time for screening the candidates through videos, as it helps to determine the suitability for the post within a short while.
4. It also improves the quality of hire as more time can be spent on well-deserving applicants.
5. Also, the recorded videos of qualified recruits can be reviewed more than once and passed on to other departments of the university to ascertain their recruitment.

Social Media:

Social Media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are more popular around the globe with its growing number of users each day. It opens opportunities to reach fresh and young talents also categorizing the candidates according to their demography, skills, interests, and previous work experiences. Social media recruitments are more advantageous in the following aspects:

1. Social media are very helpful in judging and choosing the right candidates based on their personal activities, thus giving a deeper insight into the universities on their eligibility for the position applied.
2. It can be completed in a relatively lesser time frame than the traditional recruitment methods. Also, many of the social media recruitments being cheaper or almost free of cost can result in huge savings for the university.
3. Job postings listed in the university social media page are constantly being followed by the interested candidates, which encourage them to come forward and actively engage to chat, post comments and active conversations in a group.
4. Social recruiting increases the online reputation of the university and thus helps in gaining strength and trust from the applicants. Brands having higher social media presence are considered more trustworthy.
5. Most recruits found on social media will have technically sound skills, will be more productive and last longer after recruitment.

Mobile Recruitment:

The other alternative recruitment method that can be implemented by a University is Mobile recruitment, which is a method of connecting the potential candidates and the recruiters through smartphones. Smartphones are widely being used by everyone around the globe. Thus, recruiting via mobile helps the universities have easy and direct access to the candidates through mobile recruiting apps.

Image Retrieved from: https://learn.canterbury.ac.nz/pluginfile.php/1463470/mod_forum/attachment/620952/SHRM-Social-Media-Recruiting-Screening-2015.pdf

As indicated by SHRM, about 66% of the organization has been taking steps to incorporate mobile recruitment. The two major advantages of mobile recruitment are:

1. As the main means of communication here are the smartphones, which has become an essential part of our daily lives, the entire process of recruitment can be managed and controlled from anywhere and at any convenient time frames.
2. The candidates in search of a job would be an active user of the mobile recruitment apps, thus enabling the university recruitment team to connect easily and recruit well-talented applicants.

Internal Websites:

Internal websites are yet another recruitment strategy, that is gaining popularity in many universities around the world.

Image Retrieved from: http://massey-careers.massey.ac.nz/Default.aspx

As shown in the above figure, in this method of recruitment, the universities post information about their vacancies and job descriptions in their internal websites. The candidate who is looking for the job in a particular university can enter their official website, check for the job vacancy and other related information under the careers section and then apply for their desired position. This will help their resume to be directly sent to the university HR team and increase their probability of selection than applying through other means of recruitment.

Virtual Reality Recruiting:

Virtual reality recruiting is one of the modern recruitment methods, which uses advancing VR technology to recruit the potentially right candidates. The benefits of VR recruitment method are

1. The first and foremost benefit is the immersive experience than printed material or a video. Using VR, it can attract young and enthusiastic talents, by showing them the real-time experience of being there in the university by simulating their sensory impulses. There is no other better way to explain the university culture to the academic staffs rather than making them feel their actual presence in the place.
2. The second benefit is the assessment of the applicants. After making them feel the experience of physically being present in the university, the candidates who enjoyed the experience are more likely to apply and can be more dedicated to work.

Internal Recruiting:

Internal Recruiting is also one of the important methods of recruiting. Even though other methods like video interviewing, social media interview, etc. can play an important role in selecting an ideal candidate, sometimes the universities may also end up in choosing the candidate who is unsuitable for the position and the entire process has to be repeated. It may be cost-intensive and time-consuming.

Instead, the university can focus on Internal Recruiting which is the process of selecting a student who has completed the Ph.D. degree in the particular university with good academic records and possesses other skills required for the job. The advantages of internal recruitment are:

1. The university, the HR department and even the particular Heads of the Department will have some background knowledge about the candidate and can also obtain the required information from their internal records.
2. The cost of internal recruitment is less compared to other methods as it will reduce the costs of ads, background checks, and other onboard processes.
3. It is also beneficial for the candidates, as they would already know about the culture and the workspace of the university. This could also reduce the time taken for training the selected candidates.
4. The internal candidates are much easier to find and thus, reduces the recruitment time.

Advantages of Online Recruitment:

1) Low cost:

In online recruitment, the cost incurred for publishing the job postings in the internal websites or the social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc is comparatively lesser or almost free of cost than the publishing it in the newspapers. It also offers the great advantage of editing the posts whenever needed owning to the fluctuations during the hiring process.

2) Reduction in Time:

The other advantage of the University recruiting online is that it saves time, thereby, hastening the recruitment process. It also minimizes the paperwork and enables the storage of candidate details in the online database, which helps the university to appoint the potential candidates meeting the specified requirements. Therefore, it has been estimated that online recruitment saves almost 25 to 30% of the HR time involved in the recruitment process (Workforce, 2000a as cited in Galanaki, 2002). The process is not only favourable for the university recruiters but also to the job seekers as they can modify their resume thereby keeping it regularly updated.

3) Able to reach a wider range of applicants:

In contrast to the conventional recruitment methods, e-recruitment which facilitates the use of the internet helps the university to outstretch the potential candidates and create job openings for the people around the globe, thereby, overcoming the geographical boundaries. In turn, the candidates also respond expeditiously to the jobs posted online and utilize the job opportunities. The initial selection methods like psychometric tests can be done using video interviewing, further easing the recruitment process.

4) Instant Feedback:

The other benefit of online recruitment is that it helps in providing better and instant feedback to the candidates, which not only ameliorates the recruitment process but also the University stature among the candidates.

Disadvantages of Online Recruitment:

One of the major disadvantages of online recruitment is the surfeit of applications. As mentioned earlier, the Internet cannot be confined to a particular geographical location. Therefore, the lack of barriers helps the candidates to fill the application form, submit their CV’s from anywhere around the world (Workforce, 2000a as cited in Galanaki, 2002). This might be a serious impediment to the University, to choose the potential candidate.

Though the e-recruitment process saves the cost and time, it does not remain uncomplicated. The initial cost involved for the university to set up the database to store the candidates’ information, a dedicated computer system to handle the entire process is expensive. If the university is not equipped with the technology and software, it might turn into intricate and a time-consuming process.

In online recruitments involving selection methods through mail communication, it might become a hurdle to the candidates to express themselves personally to the recruiter. This can lead to candidates not being able to explicit some of the skills and strengths to the employer (Alves 2005; Gomes, 2011 as cited in Brandão, Silva and dos Santos, 2019).

From the employee point of view, the e-recruitment process is mostly perceived as suitable for Freshers and IT-related jobs seekers. The experienced academic professionals don’t find the internet as their first option for searching Jobs.

The other disadvantage in incorporating online recruitment process in the University is that in some situations it might be biased against an international potential candidate who doesn’t use internet or against countries like China where social media sites like Facebook has been banned.

The decentralized approach of the recruitment process has an impact on the applicant reactions. The applicant reactions are the way applicants perceive and react to the recruitment process (Ployhart, 2006). The applicants can have different perceptions of the selection process especially regarding the fairness of the process. The applicants seem to favour the process that they perceive to be consistent, reliable and valid. If applicants perceive that approach followed by Universities is non-valid or not reliable, it will influence their reactions and the outcome of the selection process. Such reactions of applicants matter to the Universities that are actively competing for talent. A biased selection procedure can lead to negative reactions from the applicant and this will lead to the recruitment of non-desirable candidates. To attract talented applicants, the University needs to consider the applicant reactions before selecting and implementing the recruitment process.

The characteristics of the recruiter influence recruitment outcomes. When the recruiters don’t have the essential training in the recruitment or selection process, such a process adversely impact the perception of the University or its brand image. The outcome of such a flawed decentralized recruitment process is the high turnover of the candidates and the loss of potentially desirable candidates (Ployhart, 2006).

To make the recruitment process more efficient, the academics and head of the department must be given training in the recruitment process. The head of departments needs formal training in supervision, administration and in the recruitment process so that they become adept in hiring desirable staff members. But such training will require extra resources and funds that may not be viable for Universities that are already under financial distress.

Another plausible option could be to involve only Human resources officials in the recruitment process i.e. to centralize the entire selection process of academics in a University. The Human resources role at universities needs to undergo a paradigm shift. The role at present is transactional where HR performs tasks like collecting resumes, scheduling interviews and providing orientation sessions for new employees. There must be a new role of a strategic partner involved in the recruitment of faculty by developing compensation strategies, performance management and leadership development. HR must be given the opportunity to gain a broad level of functional skills and institutional knowledge by working with different departments.

The recruitment agencies like Fisher leadership can be employed for the hiring process as such organizations possess the skills and experience to choose the right candidates for the job.

Employer Branding is a process of constructing and cultivating the University’s Brand. The recruitment outcomes depend upon the employer’s brand. The applicants are bound to choose the firm with a better reputation as it signals better job attributes (Cable and Turban, 2003 as cited in Edwards, 2010). Positive employer Branding for University will help them to attract new academic staffs and retain the existing ones. Employer Branding makes the University stand out among the other universities both in New Zealand and in the global talent market. (Edwards, 2010).

There are many ways in which Paul and his team can enhance UC’s employer brand as per employer branding research (Edward, 2010) as elicited below: –

1. The company’s reputation has an impact upon the interest of applicants in the University as the choice for work. The reputation of a University depends upon factors like profitability, corporate social responsibility and on its ethnical diversity. The academic performance of students and their achievements in extra-curricular activities is also an indicator of the reputation of a University. The advertising campaigns, online advertisements and word of mouth advertising can be used to enhance the brand image of the University by making people widely acknowledge its reputation.
2. Employee branding considers current and potential employees as branding targets. This technique can be incorporated in the University to retain the most efficient and experienced academic staffs and also, to attract the new academic staffs by providing them with good salary packages and additional bonuses. As mentioned earlier, it’s observed that New Zealand universities are paying comparatively lesser salaries for the academic staffs in comparison to countries like US, UK or European countries. By paying them higher salaries depending on their skills and creating an amazing workspace for the current academic staffs, it will help them to create value and attract more quality academic staffs which in turn helps in building the reputation of the University.
3. The branded image of the University of Canterbury also depends upon the psychological contract content that ranges from transactional, relational to ideological. A psychological contract refers to the individual’s belief regarding the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange between the employee and the University. Employees have certain anticipations regarding employment offering and it is up to the University to satisfy those expectations. Similarly, University has a certain set of expectations from the employees that form its employment experience. Good experience at both the ends can enhance the University’s brand image.
4. The brand of the University of Canterbury also depends upon the organizational identity that shows that University possess certain distinctive characteristics. High level of organizational identity depends upon the ability of the organization to engage in open communication, be supportive and fair to its employees. The organization has the potential to become part of an employee’s identity and in this way, employees can relate themselves to the organization in a better way which in turn enhances its brand image.
5. The brand image also relies on symbolic and instrumental personality characteristics. Instrumental attributes refer to the characteristics of an organization such as location, size, and stability of an organization. The instrumental characteristics refer to the physical and tangible attributes having a strong transactional element like the money benefits and financial incentives such as increment in the wages. It includes a physical package and additional bonus. The symbolic attributes are linked with the relational aspect and signify high value-based employer brand. A university can strengthen both its symbolic and instrumental personality attributes to eventually strengthen its brand value in the eyes of the public. The symbolic attributes provide differentiation among competitors as such characteristics are the source of competitive advantage and they are valuable, rare and hard to imitate (VRIO).

Abstract:

‘Industry 4.0’, known also as the fourth industrial revolution is likely to impact the professional field of Human resources (HR). The new emerging reality of Automation and digitization is expected to bring about changes in all aspects of business management. Already, the corporate world is abuzz with concepts such as: Redefining sourcing and recruitment, Virtual Reality (VR) in Onboarding, removing redundancies in HR operations, Redefining learning for making it more relevant, Employee engagement apps etc. Corporates of today would require a successful ‘Smart HR Recruitment 4.0’ strategy to cope up with the challenges of Industry 4.0. Emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IOT), Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have already begun to automate most HR processes, thereby resulting in efficient and leaner HR teams. Both organization structures and leadership style changes would be required for efficient and successful Smart HR 4.0 implementation. Thereby allowing HR departments to play a more strategic role in the overall organization growth. This paper discusses such changes that have happened in the recruitment function and how the HR profession can effectively address the challenges of Industry 4.0.

Keywords: Industry 4.0, Smart H.R. Recruitment, Emerging technology, HR.

I. Objectives of the paper:

This paper has been written keeping in mind the following objectives:

• To trace the history of recruitment.
• To examine as to how recruitment was done during the ‘dark ages of recruitment’.
• To become aware of ‘Industry 4.0’ and consequently HR recruitment 4.0.

II. An overview of recruitment :

In simple terms, recruitment has been a “process of finding and hiring the best-qualified candidate (from within or outside of an organization) for a job opening, in a timely and cost-effective manner”. (1) Traditionally it has been done by analyzing the requirements of a job, attracting employees to that job, screening and selecting applicants, hiring, and integrating the new employee on board to the organization.

[bookmark: _Hlk1066701]Broadly speaking, end-to-end recruitment sees to attracting, screening, selecting and onboarding (2) a suitable candidate for an existing vacancy. The steps encompassing in it can be been seen in the form of a flowchart later. Apart from those steps, recruiters or the recruitment function may involve in preparing offer letters as well as inducting them once the candidates join the organization. Interviews, as a part of recruitment, may be undertaken by in-house managers, members of the HR /recruitment team or certain experts. It may be also be done by recruitment firms, search firms and consultants.

III. Basic definitions of recruitment:

Recruitment, also referred to as ‘Staffing’, can be regarded as a procedure of collecting of suitable people for filling open positions in a company. It can be regarded as the preliminary stage of the entire system. Some scholars have defined it thus: (3)

• a) According to Edwin B Flippo, “Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs, in the organization”.
• b) In the words of Yoder, “Recruitment is a process to discover the sources of manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of an efficient working force”.
• c) “ Recruitment is the process [of] discovering potential for actual or anticipated organizational vacancies”. – DeCenzo and Robbins.
• d) As per William B. Werther and Keith Davis, it is the “ discovering of potential applicants for actual or anticipated organizational vacancies………”.

IV. Recruitment process- a flowchart:

The process of recruitment is embarked upon once the job prerequisites have been understood and evaluated. It involves searching for such candidates who could be encouraged to apply for the vacancies that the company has. A typical recruitment process would consist of the steps mentioned in the flow-chart (4) as discussed earlier. It can be found in the following page:

(RECRUITMENT PLANNING)

(STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT)

(SEARCHING)

(SCREENING)

(EVALUATION AND CONTROL)

V. History of recruitment:

The earliest example of recruitment can be traced to identifying those labourers who were instrumental in building the Pyramids in Egypt and the Great Wall of China. (5) As civilization developed, the concept of choosing one’s vocation started to gradually emerge. At that juncture, the industrial revolution brought about a plethora of changes in the way work was being conducted. Many non-governmental enterprises began to enter the market which consequently affected the hiring function. Hitherto, it used to happen at the base level and a major change occurred in the form of hiring that populace who had an expertise or specialization in a particular trade . In some cases, it used to happen face to face and, in some instances, the applicants were subjected to tests. This was to see if they knew the work they were expected to perform if hired. When enterprises were not able to get people from the vicinity of their operations, they resorted to hiring outstation people. At times, they would transfer their existing manpower to those locations where their facilities would be located.

At times, a written test would be administered to incumbents. If they ‘passed it’, they would be made to face an interview. But prior to the interview stage lay the problem of checking if the answers posed in the questionnaire were desirable and accurate! Therefore, recruitment was turning out to be a cumbersome affair apart from time consuming. In India, local recruitment was the norm followed, those days, for industries that had been set up either by the British or local entrepreneurs. Since the fight for freedom was on, not much emphasis was placed on the labour class or the conditions that they worked in. The situation was no different in the Western world as it faced periodic and internal strife. The World War I (1914-1918) and The Second World War (1939-1945) added to the woes of the populace and the labour class. The former at least saw to the emergence of the present-day job recruitment . Here, advertisements were placed by recruitment bureaus so that eligible men could enlist themselves for serving in the armed forces. All these incidents saw to recruitment emerge as a function post the 1950’s in the Western World which subsequently had an impact on India which had attained its independence few years prior.

Having seen certain mentioned issues in recruiting, the last decade of the previous [20th]century saw the emergence of online job boards. These saw to easing the recruitment process as it eliminated the ‘paper and pen’ interface as well as reduced involvement of the HR department workforce. Technology saw to streamline the entire process as well as saw to shortlisting and subsequent selection become easier. Few companies would actually send out forms that incumbents could fill is as a registration form.

The norm, especially from the dawn of the new millennium [ 21st century] has been the usage of ‘Talent Acquisition systems’. These systems are cloud based and hence, execution and maintenance become a relatively easier process. Though it involves significant monetary investment, it sees to tests being evaluated instantly once they have been completed.

Before the advent of technology in recruitment, companies had to resort to traditional techniques to attract suitable manpower to join them. Some of these are still in vogue and are listed herewith: (6)

• Paper AD’s: Apart from the being the easiest way to recruit, advertisements (AD’s) are known to be equally effective.
• Job postings at employment agencies: Employment agencies are typical places where job aspirants would visit to find a job.
• Temporary agencies: They can be referred to as temp agencies or temp staffing agencies. Apart from shortlisting suitable incumbents based on experience, they make the recruitment job easier for companies.
• Internal hiring: This technique is adopted by firms to encourage those individuals who are already part of the organization by placing them in jobs that are existing. By this, the individual would know the position for which they are being hired for as well as the work that is expected out of them.

VI. Dark ages of recruitment:

The era before the advent of the facsimile (FAX) machines, Internet, job portals, social media etc. to facilitate recruitment can be termed as the ‘dark ages of recruitment’. (7)

Recruitment, as a function, had always been carried out quite effectively even before this phase. And it still has been even today without any disruption in the present. However, those recruiters who worked in that critical ‘era’ underwent these challenges listed below and emerged successful despite the rigour:

• Qualifying a job order: Any Job Description (JD) that is typical of the recruitment that happens in today’s scenario was not in existence back then. Recruiters had to get it via the telephone or by meeting the hiring manager/ client face to face!
• Telephone screening: This is used to be the norm of the day back then. Recruiters used to efficiently screen potential candidates over the phone most times. Those who didn’t fit the bill were dealt with empathy and offered direction at times!
• Selling candidates: The onus of recruiters back then was to call up a prospective candidate and ‘sell them in’ when it came to the opening. All this was done by merely going through the Curriculum Vitae (Cv)/ résumé of the candidate.
• Urgency!: This was in the case of walk-in candidates wherein recruiters would try all the tricks in the bag to ensure that the job incumbent went back with a job offer in hand. They would ensure all possible ways to ‘ensnare’ candidates so that they didn’t walk up to a competitor [recruiter] and avail placement from them! All this and more were done just to ensure that the client got the person they were looking out for without any time lag.
• Memory!: A recruiter back then was blessed with a memory befitting an elephant when it was related to their candidates. This was in the case of both potential and placed ones! With minimal assistance from technology, they could rattle out relevant details required either by the hiring company [client] or internal manager.
• Down time.: Once the sun set on that particular day, the recruiter called closed his work accordingly. Since there were no hand-held devices to disturb them, they could go back home and spend time with their families or as they pleased. They didn’t have to worry being disturbed by their boss or client regarding the status of the opening till the next morning while they came back for work!

VII. Analysis of data:

This paper has been written after analyzing the conditions pertaining to traditional recruitment and issues that need to be addressed in the Industry 4.0 framework. All this has solely been done in the form of secondary data analysis that was available in the form of documents, published reports, etc. It made aware of the first industrial revolution which happened from the 18th century and till the early 19th century. Steam was being used as a source of producing energy which got supplanted by electricity during the second industrial revolution which emerged from the later part of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th century. Automation became prominent during the latter half of the previous century and it has been affecting the recruitment in different ways. Apart from bringing an integral part of the ‘Industry 4.0’, secondary data analysis has made it aware that ‘bots’ , ‘cloud’, big data’ analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), IoT, VR, to name a few have become a part of the daily life and corporate jargon.

VIII. Challenges in recruitment:

Lack of skillsets is one of the major issues that companies face when they have to hire either a person or people for a vacancy. This has a direct bearing on the Human Resource function. Some vital and generic challenges that recruiters face in the current ‘4.0 age’ or have faced are listed herein: (8)

• Communication skills have always been a vital part of any job and gauging it is a part of the recruitment vertical under the Human Resources (HR) function. Most often, this is neglected during the ‘first cut’. Though aspirants maybe tech-savvy , it is necessary to keep in mind that communication skills have to be assessed on priority.
• There could be instances of a significant gulf existing between skills required for a particular opening and that which exists in the candidate. A proactive approach, therefore, has to be ensured by the HR department and/or the hiring team.
• Some industries have known to have high attrition percentages. To ensure the hired candidate sticks on to the job, the recruiter has to beforehand gauge whether they would remain in the job on a long-term basis or just for a few weeks. For this, efficient onboarding has to be ensured as research has revealed has a direct correlation to retention!
• The tendency of both current employees as well as prospective ones has always work for a “big-name” in the industry. Hence, they may submit their candidature to such enterprises. This makes Human Resource of those small names to come up with strategies to bring about an appeal in prospects as well as stay competitive in the job market.

IX. Recruitment in the social media era:

Technology has brought about both pros and cons to the staffing function. In our country, though technology has already made its debut, certain one’s that are vital for carrying out recruitment tend to be obsolete. Boolean search and job portals appear to be the only option for sourcing suitable candidates for vacancies. Social media hiring is yet to catch up. Even now, new age recruiters are being trained by giving them ghost written scripts that they blurt out while they call prospects. At the same time, head honchos of enterprises are still debating whether to earmark a budget for technology so that it aides in fast paced recruitment! As a result, unreceptive incumbents are targeted and, in most cases, recruiters find it difficult to handle voluminous data.

At the present, recruitment has to be keep itself abreast of changes occurring in the digital era. For this, they may have to resort to the following so that they are able to attract the right talent among the job seekers: (9)

• a)Targeted recruiting ads: Just as how one tends to search for a particular product upon seeing an ad, one will have to do the same for getting the appropriate candidate for the ‘open position’. From the recruiter point of view, the ad has to be posted keeping in mind the Job Description (JD), the correct key words and other relevant details. If these are taken care, they save precious time.
• b) Investment on Artificial Intelligence : AI, as it is referred to as, is known to considerably reduce hiring time for corporates. Natural language processing (NLP) and machine-learning algorithms are known to make the available openings to the public with considerable ease.
• c) Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Social media platforms such as Facebook for Business and LinkedIn Recruiter can be cited as examples that are SEO enabled and aid job aspirants to apply for jobs by being ‘mobile-optimized’.

Social media like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter has made it possible for prospective employers to reach out to incumbents. It has become a reality and a boon for companies starting from this century onwards. This kind of recruitment is carried out just like another function of the enterprise. Some of them also social media to gauge the skillsets of prospective employees as well as to conduct reference checks. Certain advanced tools have in fact enabled companies to foresee, evaluate and act on the data that they get of candidates. Example of LinkedIn can be cited here wherein it provides data of all possible candidates who maybe keen on joining and/or to which employer they have joined! All these and more have seen to increase in productivity of the recruitment team and HR department as a whole.

• It is evident that the last few years has seen a plethora of changes in the recruitment function. Apart from sweeping changes in technology, one can see the same in candidate behaviour as well. All these have contributed to the emergence of certain changes in recruitment especially in the digital marketing space. These have helped in carrying out candidate evaluation successfully and they are viz: (10)
• Candidate experience: The onus of corporates is to ensure a personalized communication strategy to candidates. If a prospective candidate feels good about a particular company, it means that they view it as a powerful ‘brand’. This in turn sees to enhancement of the profit of the business.
• Digital: It is necessary for companies to adapt to the digital mode of recruitment so that suitable talent maybe attracted. Apart from the Cv/ resume, companies tend to look into the social media accounts, website, blog etc. of aspirants to gain insights about them.
• Employer brand: It is evident that hunting for the right person for the right job is indeed a challenge. Competition is rampant and this brings about the need for employer branding. If a strong brand is developed, it becomes easy for the corporate to reach to the right prospects. This brings about the need for an effective Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to be in place. The EVP sees to stressing the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of the company thereby bringing awareness about its salient plus points.

X. Few future trends in recruitment 4.0:

From the recruitment point of view, Industry 4.0 and Recruitment 4.0, few trends have emerged. These are known to have a significant impact on recruitment practices on a global scale and a sample of them are: (11)

Around 65% of the current school going populace do not have job functions as of now! This is because those jobs are yet to be created for them!

The renowned auditing firm PwC, through its report, predicts that the forthcoming year[2020] will see to widespread digitization. A huge jump has been predicted in the case of defense and aerospace sector wherein they are expected to reach 76% from the present 32%.

In America, Industry 4.0 is set to assume the status of an industry very soon! Certain businesses are earmarking a whopping US$907 billion annually towards it. They expect at least 55% return of the outlay!

XI. Conclusion:

In closing, it maybe said that Smart HR 4.0 or transformations in either Industry 4.0 or Recruitment 4.0 are necessary for both companies and industry alike. These technologies, though may appear as challenges, will certainly ensure radical changes in the HR function. A lean HR department would enable both the department and those associated with it to play a role that will be strategic in nature. This paper, though basic in nature, highlights the role of Industry 4.0 as well as Recruitment 4.0 and how changes in technology has brought subsequent changes in the recruitment function.

References:

1. Recruitment (n.d). Retrieved February 10th, 2019, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/recruitment.html
2. Definition for recruitment (n.d). Retrieved February 10th, 2019, from https://www.definitions.net/definition/recruitment
3. Ahaduzzaman, M. (2018), Recruitment Definition By Others [Online] Available at https://www.bbalectures.com/recruitment-definition/
4. Recruitment Process (n.d). Retrieved February 12th, 2019, from https://businessjargons.com/recruitment-process.html
5. Engstrom, E. (2018), The Evolution of Recruiting [Infographic] [Online] Available at https://recruiterbox.com/blog/evolution-of-recruiting-infographic
6. Modern and Traditional recruitment methods (n.d). Retrieved February 12th, 2019, from http://www.kbic.com/blog/blog/recruiting-executive-search/modern-recruitment-methods-vs-traditional-recruitment-methods/
7. Savage G. (2016), WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM THE ‘DARK AGES’OF RECRUITMENT [Online] Available at http://gregsavage.com.au/2015/04/21/what-you-can-learn-from-the-dark-ages-of-recruitment/
8. Matthews K. (2018), Recruiting in the age of the cyber security skills gap: challenges to overcome [Online] Available at https://www.information-age.com/recruiting-in-the-age-of-the-cyber-security-skills-gap-123476988/
9. Caramela S. (2018), Hiring in the Digital Age: 3 Modern Recruitment Trends to Adopt [Online] Available at https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6975-future-of-recruiting.html
10. THE FUTURE OF RECRUITMENT: SOURCING TALENT IN THE DIGITAL AGE (n.d). Retrieved February 13th, 2019, from https://www.talent-works.com/2017/02/09/the-future-of-recruitment-sourcing-talent-in-the-digital-age/
11. Bhaskar V. (2017), Industry 4.0 and Future of HR [Online] Available at https://www.linkedin.com/uas/login?session_redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Elinkedin%2Ecom%2Fpulse%2Findustry-40-future-hr-varun-bhaskar&trk=author-info__follow-button

Introduction

According to the National Democratic Institute chairperson Madeleine Albright, each society deserves the best leadership meaning women should be given a chance to participate in decision-making at various levels, both nationally and globally. The chairperson is of the view that each member of society, irrespective of gender, should be allowed to compete in elections. Going contrary to this would be depriving people of their rights and freedoms. Providing an enabling environment for individual fulfillment allows both genders to engage in politics and formulation of policy in government, which result in the development of democracy and its subsequent sustainability. In many parts of the world, women are underrepresented in government whereby they are never registered as voters.

During an electioneering process, the society tends to appreciate the views of men while neglecting the ideas of women, yet they play a major role in socio-economic and political development. Feminists underscore the fact that society cannot achieve its desired interests in case half of its population is underrepresented in policy formulation. Women face similar challenges globally ranging from political to socio-economic, but the solution lies with the government, as it is expected to formulate a stronger policy that will see many women participate in political activities. In this regard, women must be well represented in social movements, political parties, and government, as this would facilitate the creation of a stronger and effervescent society.

This article looks at how the society discriminates women in political activities. Regarding elected positions, women rarely find chances to participate fully while public appoints are skewed towards one gender. The paper starts by observing the importance of incorporating women in socio-political and economic development before analyzing the challenges facing their participation.

Why Involve Women

Studies show that many women across the world are interested in helping their societies reduce the conditions that bring about suffering through policy formulation and idea generation. Through this, social problems are likely to be addressed, especially those facing women, children, and the disadvantaged. For instance, many women across the world have special problems that would better be addressed by women leaders, including issues to do with reproductive health and security. The issue of abortion is purely a female problem because it mainly affects them, but it is unfortunate that only men are involved in the debate in various parliaments leading to discrimination. Again, participation of women in government and political activities is likely to promote honesty, as it has already been proved in South America and Europe that a female president does not support any act that would lead to misappropriation of funds. Based on this, the instances of corruption are likely to go down with the involvement of women in leadership.

One of the global problems facing the many governments is the issue of security since instances of terrorism and inter-ethnic wars are in the increase. Terrorists and other belligerent actors in the international system believe that women are soft sports and are likely to be targeted with an aim of intimidating the state and world leaders. If women are involved in peace building initiatives, a likelihood that these conflicts will reduce and the society will be a peaceful place for everyone to live is high (Henderson, Jeydel, & Henderson, 2010). World leaders are constantly engaged in talks to end conflicts, but better results would be achieved in case women are included in reconstruction and reconciliation efforts. In fact, peace agreements would be sustainable given the fact that they would be inclusive.

Studies show that no female leader would be supportive of a policy that insists on war because she knows that women and children would be the sufferers, as men have the ways of defending themselves. Recently, it has been proved that female leaders have the capacity of resolving conflicts. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, strongly opposed the idea of sending troops to Egypt and Libya with claims that children and women would suffer. In this case, he insisted on dialogue forcing the US to take a back seat in handling global issues for the first time in history.

States with women as presidents are known to support programs aiming at improving people’s educational levels, road and rail network, healthcare standards, and financial power. Germany is one such country that has one of the strongest female leaders in the modern times and she is supportive of economic and social development. Germany is a country with a long history of technological development, but its leadership has always let down the people because resources are channeled to military development and proliferation of weapons instead of developing the infrastructure. Hitler was among the leaders to have misused the country’s resources to engage in unnecessary wars that affected the economic development of the state for several years. Currently, Germany is one of the economic powerhouses in Europe to an extent of requesting to bail out states facing economic challenges with men as their leaders.

Britain achieved several economic objectives under Margaret Thatcher as the prime minister since she ended corruption by insisting on the privatization of public corporations that were almost being declared bankrupt because of mismanagement and misallocation of funds. In various Scandinavian countries, women leaders are mainly associated with socialist parties with the major aim of promoting health, education, and equality. In the Latin American region, Argentina and Chile made history by electing women to positions of influence when they voted for female presidents. In Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, women were elected as prime ministers and their achievements are incomparable since they almost eliminated the problem that have been facing the region since independence, which is drug trafficking.

Brazil and Costa Rica are among the latest countries to have elected women as their heads of states and their performance confirm the assertion that women are never interested in conflicts, but instead they have the interests of the community at heart meaning they simply want to change things in society. Spain and Sweden are among countries in Europe to have elected female presidents when the society needed them most since they brought tremendous changes that proved the critics wrong.

Challenges

Women are engaged in all sorts of campaigns to ensure they are involved in political processes, as well as government, but they have to do something extra to force their way out since they are trapped in unproductive culture, male chauvinism, and a complex social structure that do not support their normal living. Right from childhood, a woman knows that she has to respect men meaning they live under a state of false consciousness since physical features should not be used to subjugate a section of society. The percentage of women both in elected and appointed positions is always varies in several countries in the sense that it always below par.

Based on this, women do not have the numbers needed to bring about changes in political processes and leadership in government. Many countries have realized the problem whereby affirmative action is meant to bring fairness, but women are still faced with the challenge of convincing society to accept them as genuine leaders aiming at instituting reforms that would benefit each individual. When women seek political offices, they are always viewed negatively since many are accused of trying to change the social structure radically, which would result in anomy or formlessness. In Argentina, at least forty percent of all positions were taken over by women in the lower house in 2009, but it is unfortunate that only eight percent of all positions went to women in Colombia.

Somebody wonders why women are underrepresented in various countries, but the answer lies with the country’s electoral laws because women are not given adequate protection. In electoral systems that favor proportional representations, Paxton and Hughes (2014) are of the view that many women are likely to be elected as opposed to the majority system, which means plurinominal election districts, as well as the legislative quotas play a significant role in ensuring that women are elected to positions of influence.

Political parties are to blame for the tribulations of women as far as election to high positions and government appointments are concerned since they ensure that only men nominated for elections and this trend is common in the developing countries whereby parties are private properties owned, financed, and controlled by a single individual. In this case, a woman is expected to bend low for her to be given nomination, something proving that internal democracy in parties is a matter of concern for many women across the world, which prevents their chances of success. In case a political party is elected to office, its members are likely to ensure that their close confidants, who helped them in campaigns either financially or morally, are awarded with prestigious positions, such as ambassador, cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries, and heads of key public corporations.

Unfortunately, women are rarely considered when making important appointments and their presence in cabinet is simply for publicity because they are given inferior positions that do not give them an opportunity to influence policy formulation process. Other issues, such as ethnicity and socio-economic statuses, worsen the situation for women. The prevailing conditions cannot allow women to participate fully in political activities because parties in the modern society play a critical role in power acquisition, something suggesting that women will continue facing the same problem unless something is done to increase their participation. A political party decides who gets the position of influence meaning they are gatekeepers of women’s progress as far as parity is concerned.

Conclusion

Women have never enjoyed their political rights and freedoms since time in memorial and things are not expected to change any soon because of the rigid social structure, defective culture, and lack of good will since their empowerment is viewed as a threat to the interests of men. Through feminism, women have achieved several objectives, but they have a long away because their participation is low in many countries. It is noted that women are likely to increase their chances of participation in political activities in case they are considered equal partners in political parties.

References

Henderson, S., Jeydel, A. S., & Henderson, S. (2010). Women and politics in a global world. New York: Oxford University Press. Web.

Paxton, P. M., & Hughes, M. M. (2014). Women, politics, and power: A global perspective. Oxford: University of Oxford. Web.

Despite capitalism dominating business environment across the globe, China has managed to hold firm on the Marxist-communist foundation and has struck a balance between the science of politics and communist business system (Deer and Song, 2012). The manufacturing industry in China has unlimited potential for expansion.

Within business organization and practice, labour is vital especially in balancing over head cost of doing business. Reflectively, existence of abundant, cheap, and sustainable labour supply gives the Bearing & Boodles business an upper hand in the competitive Chinese market and ensures its sustainability in the long run. China has a skilled pool of cheap labour. This aspect is attractive for the company in doing business within its territories (Deer and Song, 2012). The population of China is ethically aligned and appreciates the essence of commitment and hard work towards achieving optimal output.

Professionalism and competitive work ethics have been internalised in the Chinese labour market. There are millions of graduates who are available to offer skills to any business activity. In order to gain from this comparative advantage, doing business in China saves resources that could have been directed towards training workforce since skilled labour is available and relatively affordable, as compared to other nations where living standards are higher and minimum wage bigger (Deer and Song, 2012).

In addition, the culture of the Chinese people promotes self discipline and appreciates excellence in service delivery as a means of making the economy better. In the process of achieving this, the self motivating culture will facilitate competence and combine skills with loyalty to give positive results for the Bearing & Boodles Company.

Customer base

Since the Bearing & Boodles Company operates in the manufacturing industry in China, it has the potential of offering services to all the major companies using ball bearing as a raw material in their production activities. The Bearing & Boodles Company has unlimited opportunity for expansion since companies manufacturing automotives, robots, and other appliances in China are very many (Deer and Song, 2012). These companies have high annual turnover and will maintain the demand for ball bearings produced by the Bearing & Boodles Company.

Besides, the company has the potential to attract the highly skilled personnel within China. Basically, the skilled manpower will ensure that the company’s production, creativity, and distribution activities are sustainable in the long run. China has the highest skilled manpower in the entire world (Farrell and Grant, 2005).

Recruitment procedure

In order to benefit from the above opportunities, the Bearing & Boodles’ graduate recruitment manager should concentrate on graduates with relevant skills through a selective recruitment process (Farrell and Grant, 2005). This should be followed by verification of the qualifications of each candidate against the Chinese government’s standards. It is important to create an environment of practical skills assessment to ensure that those who pass the recruitment procedure can become global business leaders (Farrell and Grant, 2005). The recruitment program should accommodate the Chinese work ethics and culture for it to be inclusive and accommodative to special talents.

Reference List

Deer, L., & Song, L 2012, “China’s Approach to Rebalancing: A Conceptual and Policy Framework.” China & World Economy, vol. 20 no.1, pp.1-26. Web.

Farrell, D & Grant, A 2005 “China’s looming talent shortage”, McKinsey Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 31-54, 2014, via McKinsey database. Web.

Organization Presentation and Summary

The consequences of the AIDS and HIV epidemic that peaked in the eighties can be observed even today. The disease is one of the leading causes of death globally (Piot et al., 2015). For years, the epidemic has unsettled communities, families, and relationships. The disease has orphaned millions of children and disrupted public health (Piot et al., 2015). Sex education and sexual health activism play an essential role in alleviating the epidemic’s consequences. Moreover, they are indispensable in building awareness around such poignant concepts as gender, sexuality, and consent. LIFEbeat is a sex positivity and LGBTQ organization striving to promote sexual health with the assistance of the country’s music and entertainment industries. Numerous music industry representatives became victims of the epidemic; yet, the sector remained silent for years until 1992, based on Bob Caviano’s and several other high-ranking executives initiative, LIFEbeat was founded. Hence, the organization became a prominent advocate for implementing preventive interventions and sexual health promotion.

LIFEbeat acknowledges the significance of music in young people’s lives, especially music-related events, and uses its power for communal benefit. LIFEbeat’s target group is at-risk young people, primarily those under 29. The organization engages the youth in conversations about safe sexual practices and services to which they can resort irrespective of their socioeconomic status, sexuality, or gender. In addition to direct discussions and support, it distributes safe sex kits. LIFEbeat operates at large festivals and tours as well as national partner’s community centers – it collaborates with LGBTQ community centers and AIDS prevention organizations all over the country. The preventive interventions in the form of talks are supposed to help young people resist negative influences, the urge, and potential pressure to participate in risky behaviors. “Touring, Talking, and Taking Action” is the slogan that serves as the basis for LIFEbeat’s actions and organizational ideology.

For almost three decades, this sexual health organization cooperated with a variety of community centers and services to execute potentially life-saving preventive measures among LGBTQ and other at-risk music fans. Yet, LIFEbeat considerably relies on volunteering, particularly for fieldwork at large festivals and music events. The organization seems to experience troubles in volunteer recruitment. The challenge prevents the organization from effectively completing its primary mission – sexual education and HIV prevention.

Dynamics and Factors in Resolving the Challenge

The HIV epidemic disproportionately impacts the LGBTQ community. The same population group is the primary target of oppression, discrimination, and violence. These dynamics significantly complicate the mitigation of the public health problem in question. Although overall public acceptance of sexual minorities seems to grow gradually, violence and discrimination are not eradicated and continue to threaten lives and decrease life quality of the LGBTQ population. The notion results that members of the community can be more prone to non-disclosure of identity. According to Abaver and Cishe (2018), “non-disclosure of identity by individuals of this group [LGBTQ] denies members the opportunity of accessing specific health care needs to be tailored at the prevention and control of STIs, such as HIV/AIDS” (p. 70). This external to organization factor potentially impedes LIFEbeat’s staff and volunteers from reaching potential service users and members of the at-risk population group.

An internal factor that could complicate the resolution of the problem that LIFEbeat undertook is the number of its members. Although the organization has both dedicated staff and volunteers, their number might not be sufficient for extensive preventive work. The organization’s site indicates that LIFEbeat primarily relies on the work of a small team. Since the organization operates countrywide and provides educational consulting via social media as well as in person, it could potentially benefit from a more extensive staff that would enhance its outreach capacities.

Social Workers as Agents of Change

As an agent of change, a social worker performs several essential functions. They can alleviate the transition, help manage issues that arise from the change, and also be its catalyst. In HIV prevention, social workers’ primary responsibility is to discourage at-risk individuals from engaging in high-risk behaviors and increase HIV awareness. Regarding LIFEbeat’s organizational activity, social workers could accelerate and facilitate the change. Outreach workers have an especially significant role in awareness-raising and educating at-risk individuals about safety, prevention, and treatment options. Specifically, such professionals could help to train new volunteers that LIFEbeat involves in preventive work. The collaboration between social workers and volunteers is beneficial in several ways: participants could obtain supplementary knowledge regarding safe-sex practices and awareness, master their communicative skills, and enhance cultural sensitivity when dealing with minorities. Furthermore, multidisciplinary teams, including social workers, volunteers, and LIFEbeat staff, could help maximize the results of preventive work. Generally, cooperation between the organization and social workers could alleviate the staff problem and increase preventative work efficiency.

LIFEbeat appears to be moderately ready to reconsider its approach to staffing. Organizational readiness for change varies on several internal factors, such as its members’ attitudes, availability of resources, and demand (Nilsen & Birken, 2020). The attitude of LIFEbeat’s members to change is challenging to determine without direct communication. Nonetheless, the fact that the organization has numerous partners countrywide suggests that it might be open to further cooperation. Regarding demand, HIV/AIDS remains a grave public health issue among the LGBTQ population, even in developed countries, warranting the need for LIFEbeat’s service. Additionally, the popularity of volunteering is thought to be continuously increasing, particularly for large events – LIFEbeat’s principal field of operation (Vidishcheva & Gunare, 2018). The tendency mitigates the organization’s need for human resources and serves as a support for implementing this developmental change. However, the current situation in the healthcare industry presents the principal barrier to extending staff.

Alternative Change Interventions

Coaching is the first possible intervention aimed to prepare volunteers for fieldwork. One of the issues from which numerous NGOs suffer is the lack of evidence-based practice, potentially damaging service users (Bach-Mortensen et al., 2018). Coaching provided by social workers could help to prevent the problem in LIFEbeat. The intervention gives an opportunity for distributing organizational news, professional knowledge, and any other information that could be impactful for volunteer service. Coaching sessions could also help to increase volunteer retention. The second alternative is performance evaluation effectuated by a social worker. The intervention would allow for determining the positive sides of the organization’s preventive work and identify the areas for improvement. Performance evaluation conducted by a professional could serve as the foundation for enhanced performance. Mentoring is another alternative in which, unlike coaching, a social worker would have only one mentee. In this way, volunteers would obtain an opportunity to enhance their knowledge and communication skills, learning from professionals in the field personally. Additionally, mentoring could take place during fieldwork, for instance at festivals, so that volunteers could master their skills while practicing and correcting their mistakes at the same time.

The third alternative could be the optimal choice. The ultimate goal of all three change interventions is to resolve LIFEbeat’s recruitment challenge to enhance HIV prevention work. Creating a mentorship program for volunteers adheres to the principles of social, environmental, and economic justice. From the perspective of social justice, the mentorship program could enhance the quality of services that the organization provides to at-risk groups, such as LGBTQ youth. From the standpoint of economic justice, the program, to an extent, mitigates the consequences of socioeconomic disparities that the at-risk population faces. Regarding environmental justice, the program would involve individuals regardless of their ethnicity, income, gender, age, et cetera.

Evaluation Strategy to Assess the Effectiveness of the

Intervention

The proposed evaluation strategy is composed of quantitative and qualitative estimates. First of all, the intervention’s effectiveness is reflected in the volunteer’s retention rate, which ideally should be around 70%. The percentage demonstrates volunteers’ satisfaction with their experience and ensures that LIFEbeat has a reserve of human resources to be engaged in their future activities – fieldwork at large music events and online consulting. In order to collect qualitative results, a survey with closed-ended and open-ended questions should be distributed among the volunteers at the end of the program. The survey is supposed to provide feedback and demonstrate the highlights and downsides of volunteers’ experience to be taken into account for future mentoring. Additionally, some of the volunteers could be interviewed to complement the survey’s results and establish overall impressions. Hence, the proposed evaluation strategy aims to measure volunteers’ satisfaction and retention to determine the intervention’s effectiveness.

References

Abaver, D. T., & Cishe, E. N. (2018). Violence, abuse and discrimination: Key factors militating against control of HIV/AIDS among the LGBTI sector. SAHARA-J: Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS, 15(1), 60–70.

Nilsen, P., & Birken, S. A. (Eds.). (2020). Handbook on implementation science. Edward Elgar.

Piot, P., Abdool Karim, S. S., Hecht, R., Legido-Quigley, H., Buse, K., Stover, J., … Sidibé, M. (2015). Defeating AIDS—advancing global health. The Lancet, 386(9989), 171–218.

Vidishcheva, E., & Gunare, M. (2018). The impact of volunteering in the economy of mega-events. European journal of economic studies, 7(2), 126-131.

Bach-Mortensen, A. M., Lange, B. C. L., & Montgomery, P. (2018). Barriers and facilitators to implementing evidence-based interventions among third sector organisations: a systematic review. Implementation Science, 13(1).

Introduction

Recruiting job applicants is an exercise that ought to be done carefully. The manner in which companies recruit their employees differ from one company to another. While some companies prefer recruitment agencies, others use advertisements in the media and social sites.

Other companies hang a list of the available vacancies on the job boards. Various studies have been done to identify how aspects like facial expression, competency, and gender among others do influence the selection of employees (Doyle, 2011, pp. 1-5).

Summary of the article

From the different researches that have been conducted, it has been established that physical appearance plays a great role in making decisions related to hiring. However, this is not the only aspect that recruiters consider. Some other aspects can be used while making recruitment decisions. In most cases, these aspects relate to common stereotypes related to gender and appearance of individuals.

Desrumaux, Bosscher and Léoni (2009) did a correlational study on how facial expression, gender and the competence of applicants affected recruitment. The study sought to find how these factors influenced the decision on the suitability of job applicants. This is a correlational study because it considers how the variables relate to each other and the impression they create to the person recruiting by use of a correlational matrix.

In their study, the authors looked into the relationship between the variables of gender, attractiveness and competence and their influence in cases that involved the applicant’s hireability, utility and desirability. The issue of attractiveness was considered because of the manner in which it is perceived in the society.

The perception attaches efficiency, competency and sociable features to them. The study noted that attractiveness varied depending on the gender of an applicant and the job applied. Whether a job is male-typed or female-typed, attractiveness increased the chances of one getting it.

In most studies, issues like job sex-typing, managerial and non-managerial levels are not simultaneously manipulated. Other studies have also shown a lack of clarity between job status and sex type. The methodology employed in this study seals this gap by independently looking at job status and sex type. It also considered validated variables, unlike other previous studies.

The study also includes new scales of measure other than suitability and hireability to include utility and desirability. This led to the development of the guiding assumption. The assumption is that a recruiter should be attentive to attractiveness when considering female jobs than male jobs to judge hireability, utility and desirability. Another guiding presumption was that competence was more disadvantageous to female jobs than male jobs.

To consider these issues, forty random participants from two different towns were selected and divided into two groups. They both had an average experience of three years in recruitment issues. One group made its opinions in regard to male sex-typed managerial jobs and female sex-typed while the other group made opinions on the same with regard to non-managerial jobs (Desrumaux, Bosscher and Léoni 2009, pp. 33-34).

The study found that there is a great influence of an applicant’s attractiveness. It showed that applicants with attractive applicants were highly rated and that less competent applicants judged more competent applicants favourably. Good ratings were observed for male sex-typed jobs than female sex-typed jobs. Ratings were also higher for non-managerial jobs than for managerial positions (Desrumaux, Bosscher and Léoni 2009, p. 37).

Although the study was quite successful, there were many challenges encountered. It can be seen that the sample used for the study was quite small. This means that the results of the study cannot be inferred to the general population. Therefore, further study that will use a relatively large sample for reliable results should be conducted. In addition, the jobs that were used in the study were sales jobs.

In this case, it is necessary for studies to be conducted on other job categories. Despite the challenges, there are positive elements that can be drawn from this study. It can be noted that the study used experienced recruiters. Although it was not easy getting such participants, the effort made was plausible (Desrumaux, Bosscher and Léoni 2009, p. 41).

Critique of the article

The reliability and validity of this study ought to be considered carefully. A study can be based on drawing a given conclusion that reflects the true reality on the ground is deemed to be reliable. On the other hand, a study is deemed to be valid if it can be tested against already existing parameters. In the instant scenario, the study is reliable because it reveals an in-depth analysis of the mind of a recruiter.

It analyses how the recruiter is influenced by the attractiveness besides other outstanding requirements like competence and value. This is realized by the sample of forty persons who work in recruitment agencies with at least three years experience.

The study can be held to be valid. In this case, the researcher has analysed earlier findings and closed the gaps created in the methodology used. This aspect is achieved by employment the use of independent analysis of job status and sex job type. It further incorporates the use of new measures of utility and desirability, unlike the case in previous studies. These guards against bringing into question the validity of the study.

The authors’ objective was to get an understanding of how attractiveness and competence did affect hireability, desirability and utility in various jobs. In finding a guide by the five formulated hypotheses, they concluded that it is a fact that attractiveness bias did exist in job recruitment. The only difference was that it was manifested differently.

This depended on whether the job in question was a managerial or non-managerial one. It also depended on whether it was male sex-typed or female-sex typed. However, they ought to have noted that the definition of attractiveness differs depending on an individual’s background.

Thus, attractiveness should be defined in relation to the diversity of people’s backgrounds in mind. In this case, what may be termed as attractive in one setting may not necessarily be labelled as such in another setting. To a large extent though, the authors have correctly interpreted the findings.

The authors referred to already done studies, which formed the basis of their study and impelled them to find more information about attractiveness and its influence in job recruitment. Acknowledgement was given through the sources cited with criticism where necessary. A list of reference was given at the end of the study. This is a proper ethical conduct that is highly valued.

Though I have held the findings of the research reliable and valid, there is room for further research on the effect of attractiveness in recruitment. For instance, in this study, the author’s choice of samples was more biased to the recruiter’s reaction to the attractiveness of an applicant and no insight was given to the applicant’s thought over the issue of attractiveness.

I am convicted that even the applicant has a given way he or she thinks about attractiveness. For example, the authors would have included participants who had undergone a recruitment process especially an interview and either succeeded or failed. Such participants should have been asked whether their failure or success was influenced by attractiveness.

This is important because some job applicants may be considering competence as a major factor at the expense of attractiveness. A study developed along this line will give insight regarding the influence of attractiveness in job recruitment. By not considering this aspect, I find the authors’ conclusion relatively weak. Had this aspect been explored by the authors, holding their findings to be strong would have been easy.

Some other inferences can be drawn from this study. For instance, it is easy to conclude that non-managerial positions are lowly looked at, following the author’s finding on the same regarding ratings. The ratings for non-managerial jobs were higher than those of managerial jobs. This will partly be as a result of the perception that it is hard to meet the appraisal criteria for managerial positions.

Similarly, the study can promote the tendency of considering the attractiveness in job recruitment than competence. This will see many companies employ attractive people who do not necessarily meet the competence standards required by the company.

In addition, another perception may crop up projecting attractiveness as a necessity for job applicants. In turn, this will motivate job applicants to be attractive and design job recruitment criteria that combine attractiveness and competence.

The authors decided to choose a sample that is not all inclusive. This can be easily be held to be worse in analyzing the issue of attractiveness by job applicants. This is the case because attractiveness affects both the recruiter and the job applicant in different ways. For the recruiter, attractiveness influences him or her to either select that applicant or drop him or her.

On the other hand, attractiveness can make the applicant be considered for a job, or it can make that applicant lose the position. Thus, it makes it paramount that a sample that is reflective of these two categories is chosen in doing a study like this one. On the contrary, the authors in this study took a sample from only one category; that of recruiters with an average of three years experience. Thus, one develops some caution when relying on such a study.

Brief summary

In job recruitment, attractiveness greatly does influence the decision of recruiters. Its effect is varied depending on gender, competence, job sex-type, hierarchical status and hireability. The correlation study criticized above shows the varied outcomes reached at depending on the applicant’s attractiveness.

Unlike most studies already carried out which have some gaps, this study considered hierarchical status and job sex-type for both managerial and non-managerial positions. I found out that favorable ratings were given for male sex-typed jobs than female sex-typed positions. Another finding was that high ratings were given for non-managerial jobs as compared to managerial jobs.

The study as well concluded that attractiveness and competence were advantageous to male sex-typed jobs as compared to female sex-typed positions. Thus, the attractiveness concept cannot be overlooked when making hiring decisions or any recruitment for that matter.

References

Desrumaux, P., Bosscher, S. and Léoni, V. (2009). Effects of Facial Attractiveness, Gender, and Competence of Applicants on Job Recruitment Swiss Journal of Psychology, 68(1): 33–42.

Doyle, A. (2011). Alison Doyle’s Job Search Guidebook. S.I: Doyle & Doyle Communications, Inc.

Introduction

Corrections are government agencies that are responsible for managing the treatment of convicted offenders. Corrections are either run by local, state, or federal governments or classified as maximum, minimum, or medium security level. Primarily, they ensure that the sentences imposed by the criminal justice system are carried out. Corrections officers are the persons entitled to the running of corrections, and as Clear, Cole and Reisig (2006) claim, “corrections are a people processing operation, hence their personnel is the main resource” (p.549).

A career in corrections is not appealing to most people as it is thought to be boring, low paying and has minimal chances of advancement (Clear, Cole and Reisig, 2006). One incentive of this job is that it provides its personnel with civil service status and job security. There are two main goals in recruiting and retaining staff in corrections; attracting the right candidates for the job and motivating them once they are employed.

They manage offenders through imprisonment, rehabilitation and probation and parole. The main goal of corrections is to rehabilitate people and help them to return to normal lives. In this respect, correctional systems include adult and juvenile offenders, prison systems, probation, and parole and finally community-based rehabilitation. In addition, correction facilities offer education programs, especially in juvenile prisons.

The recruitment of correctional officers is faced with several challenges as a result of retention of the qualified and experienced staff is of great importance. Successful corrections are able to deter criminals from future crimes, offer punishment for crimes committed, rehabilitate, and reintegrate the offender back into the community. Moreover, there are different types of correctional centres namely prisons, community services and others.

One challenge of recruitment of correctional officers is that this career is not viewed as an occupational field (Josi and Sechrest, 1998, p. 20). In recruiting corrections generally, use three tests for its applicant’s written test, psychological test and agility test (Freeman, 1999, p.311). Job satisfaction is very critical since satisfied workers have higher productivity, higher job retention, and lower rates of absenteeism. This paper seeks to examine ways of recruiting and retaining correctional officers.

Recruitment

Recruitment of Corrections officers is a daunting task, considering the low visibility of this career, and they need to attract qualified staff employed from all demographic groups (Josi and Sechrest, 1998, p. 20). Recruitment is done when there is a vacant position or when there are potential vacancies in the future. They should set an example to other private and government institutions by giving equal opportunities of employment to qualified ex-convicts. In addition, it is essential to have proper recruitment policies since they will result in a “lower rate of personnel turnover, fewer disciplinary problems, higher morale, better community relations, and efficient and effective services” (Josi and Sechrest, 1998, p. 20).

There are four important standards in recruitment of corrections officers; an equal opportunity plan, cooperative personnel recruitment agreements among correctional agencies, an affirmative action plan, and a Disability plan. The written test seeks to assess the level of knowledge and the ability to use knowledge of the applicant, while the psychological test checks whether the applicant has the psychological makeup to handle the complexity of the job and the agility test measures physical capability.

Recruitment begins with a formal directive, which is controlled by one person or position. A well-detailed plan assists correctional management to conduct a well-organized and effective search for qualified officers. In addition, the recruitment should set measurable goals, strategies, and procedures that will assist in the achievement of these goals. Moreover, “a schedule of important activities, an itemized, recruitment budget, and procedures for obtaining the assistance of community organizations and leaders” also should be included (Josi and Sechrest, 1998, p. 20).

Community and personnel agencies can facilitate recruitment of officers. Recruitment success largely depends on how job vacancies was advertised, the availability of locations for applications and testing process. Moreover, during recruitment, application and employment contact should be maintained with the applicant.

Minority groups

The inclusion of women and minority groups in supervisory ranks of the recruitment demonstrates the department’s commitment to cultural diversity, standards, enhances receptivity, support, and increases the potential of recruiting from diverse spectrum of the community. The American Correctional Association records show that correctional officers are entering the occupation at a younger age, with higher education levels, and a large number of women and people from minority groups (Josi and Sechrest, 1998, p. 12). Notably, the number of women working as correctional officers has risen steadily; between 1995 and 2000, there was 41 percent increase in number of women working in corrections (May, Minor, Ruddell, 2007, p.367).

Community outreach

Community organizations and stakeholders’ corroboration in the recruitment process can aid in getting a qualified person and person who can be listened to. Youth can play a big role in corrections especially in the juvenile centers. In addition, recruiting among the youth can yield good people who will be beneficial to the centers in the long run. Therefore, the community gives the recruiting information a wider exposure to potential officers.

Diversity

Diversity recruiting entails hiring employees with varying backgrounds. A diversity-driven work environment creates increased productivity, and incorporates different talents, skills, interests and abilities in corrections (Arthur, 2001, p.10) Recruiting among the youth in high schools, colleges, and universities provides a largely untapped pool of recruits. This can be done through schools’ career counselors and direct exposure to working through internship programs.

Affirmative action

This requires that corrections hire personnel from the minority groups of the community that are underrepresented in the corrections institutions. In this preferential recruitment, the recruiting agency can recruit from another region if the minority group workforce is less. This includes recruiting from persons with disabilities but falls under the basic standards for employment of correctional officers.

Training

According to Allen, Sawhney (2009, p. 415), “ACA recommends 40 hours of training for correctional officers before they receive job assignment plus at least one hundred and twenty hours of additional training within the first year.” Training enhances correctional officers’ confidence and skill, which will facilitate them to provide quality services. Training, mentoring, and support are an integral part of integrating new recruits in the corrections centers. A study identified that officers in their first year were at high risk of being manipulated by prisoners, thus the officers needed to learn if they could fit into this profession (May, Minor, Ruddell, 2007, p.366).

Stress management techniques should be incorporated into the training programs of recruits to prepare them. In addition, officers should be conversant with federal and state guidelines, multicultural understanding of different ethnic groups and cultures, records keeping. The management should use their personnel in the recruiting process; the advantages are more personnel are involved in the recruiting than the number that could be assigned specific task. Because of professional interests, officers are likely to recruit qualified candidates.

Human resource departments in states are supportive in recruiting qualified persons since they have developed ability to attract capable staff for government units. The advantage of using these departments is that they have a higher probability of success. In addition, the selection process should be done in a fair and a non-discriminatory manner for those who meet the standards.

Retention

It is estimated that in 2000, almost 40 states in the US had turnover rates of up to 20 percent (Allen and Sawhney, 2009, p. 415). With few people willing to work in corrections, it is highly important to retain most of the personnel. Such high turnover creates a big loss to the local authorities since recruiting, training, conducting background tests to obtain competent corrections specialists are expensive. Moreover, the departure of employees creates stress and lower morale of the remaining staff which affects quality of service delivered.

The shortage created means that the remaining staff has to work with new inexperienced workers or work for long hours to cover for the shortage. This can be achieved through several means; employee satisfaction. To retain corrections officers they have to compete with the private sector in terms of salaries, work schedules, and appraisals.

Career advancement prospects

One method of retaining officers is having programs for advancement, experienced, and officers who obtain further training and education should be given opportunity to rise through the ranks. Officers could also specialize in careers in corrections like specialists, instructors, and parole officers (McDavid, 2005, p.170). Identifying leaders in new recruits and engaging them in administration and management also reduces the turnover (Allen, Sawhney, 2009, p. 415). In addition, correctional officers can advance their studies and become counselors, investigators or even correctional cadet trainers. Officers who wish to advance their careers should be given flexible work schedules or study leaves.

Salaries and Benefits

Reviewing of salaries of correction officers can retain most of its personnel, since many tend to move due to low wages. According to May, Minor and Ruddell (2007), “as salaries improved, administrators were able to recruit and retain more officers; in 2004 the median yearly earning of a corrections officer was approximately $33,600” (p. 364). Public corrections are limited in the size of salaries they offer, but they can counter this by highlighting the retirement and insurance benefits that they give. Research has indicated that some of greatest cause of dissatisfaction is lack of government-sponsored retirement plan, frequency of pay rises, fairness in award of promotions and quality of life and balance of life.

Management and organization

Proper supervision must be entrenched in corrections to avoid junior staff from leaving due to bad relationships with their bosses. This can be attained through training and scrutinizing the abilities of the bosses. Getting rid of incompetent and difficult employees can lower the turnover in corrections. Proper disciplinary measures and punishments should be applied without discrimination to avoid disgruntled employees who can leave. Besides, this can be avoided by communicating the expectations, rules, and regulations.

Working Environment

Correctional centers are high stress and risks of physical harm workplaces; to retain their staff, the management has to put up measures that will ensure a friendlier workplace. The issues like understaffing, extensive overtime, overcrowding, rotating work shifts and inmates’ violence and manipulations have to be addressed. In addition, the allocation of shifts should be fair especially the night shifts. Corrections officers should be accorded counseling and other support in order to relieve stress associated with their work. Annual and other leaves should be streamlined to avoid burnout since officers have to work odd hours. Moreover, adequate and proper equipment supply in correctional centers who relief officers’ anxiety and stress.

Conclusion

Corrections institutions have the challenge of competing for the best employees in the market with the private sector. The private sector has an upper hand due to the ability to pay better salaries. In that regard, corrections are having high turnover, leading to high losses due to continuous training of new employees. The recruiting process of corrections officers should be a vigorous one so that only the qualified candidates are employed. The recruits should be diverse including women, youth, and minority groups. In addition, the recruiting agency should work with other governments’ human resources, community organizations, and schools to reach potential recruits. Once the recruits have been selected, they should be trained and equipped to perform their duties.

To lower this turnover, the institutions have to make their salary packages attractive, have sound management, improve the working environment, and create opportunities for career advancement. Special training on how to manage stress would be a vital tool in reducing the number of turnover officers. With the prospects of lack of corrections officers, the management should introduce technological tools to cope with reduced number of staff. These tools include alarms, barriers, and walls.

References

Allen, J. and sawhney, R. (2009). Administration and management in Criminal Justice: A service quality Approach. London: SAGE.

Arthur, D. (2001). The employee recruitment and retention handbook. NY: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.

Clear, T., Cole, G. and Reisig, M. (2006). American corrections. OH: Cengage Learning.

Freeman, R. (1999). Correctional organization and management: public policy challenges, behaivior, and structure. NY: Elsevier.

Josi, D. & Sechrest, D. (1998). The changing career of the correctional officer: policy implication for the 21^st century. PA: Butterworth-Heinemann..

May, D., Minor, K. & Ruddell, R. (2007). Corrections and the Criminal Justice system. MA: Jones & Bartlett learning.

McDavid, S. (2005). Career opportunities in law enforcement, security and protective services. NY: Infobase publishing.

Introduction

As a federal contractor, MEGAQUIPMENT is bound by a number of laws and regulations regarding the protection of women, the minorities, people with disabilities as well as individuals recognized as veterans under the US laws (Leiter & Leiter, 2012). With these regards, the company’s hiring and recruitment process is required to abide to these laws in order to ensure that none of the applicants to various job positions are discriminated. The purpose of this news release is to provide a detailed description of the best recruitment practices for females and American military veterans as the most targeted groups during the company’s recruitment procedure.

Techniques to be used in recruiting women employees at MEGAQUIPMENT

Under the Executive Order 11246, the American laws requires all federal contractors and subcontractors to develop a comprehensive affirmative action plan (AAP) as a guideline to direct the equal employment of individuals based in gender, minority groups and the people with disabilities (Department of Labor, 2013). In this case, hiring female employees are an important aspect of the affirmative action for MegaEquipment.

The company seeks to comply with the laws while at the same time building a strong workforce and meeting the corporate social responsibilities as an equal employer. Under the AAP [41 CFR 60-1.12 and 60-2.17(d)], a federal contractor should develop and submit a detailed AAP plan that is relatively in consistent with the one recommend by the OFCCP (Felsberg, 2005).

To meet these requirements, MegaEquipment has decided to borrow a detailed AAP plan a company that has used this plan before with positive outcomes. In this case, the company has decided to make sure that at least 31% of its employees in a number of selected workplaces are females. First, a job group profile and a job group analysis will be developed. Under these plans, the administration is the highest organ of the organization and involves office work.

The maximum possible number of administration employees is 12. In this case, the company seeks to ensure that at least 34% of the employees are females. Secondly, the accounts section, design and sales are largely office work-oriented workplaces. Each has a total of 24 slots and the company has decided to ensure that at least 30% are females. Thirdly, installation, assembly and engineering sections involve a lot of masculine work. The company has decided to ensure that at least 26% of the employees are females.

The AAP for hiring military veterans

Under the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 as well Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act 1973, federal contractors are required to have AAP that protects military veterans from discrimination during employment (Department of Labor, 2012). In this case, MegaEquipment has decided to adopt and use the same AAP borrowed from the company, which has shown positive outcomes when used in hiring. According to this plan, the company will ensure that at least 12% of the total employees hired in the executive and managerial levels are veterans. In addition, the engineering and assembly sections will ensure that at least 18% of the positions are preserved for the American military veterans.

Examination of the possible outcomes of using the sample AAP

The company from which the AAP was borrowed allowed us to examine some of its employees to determine their reactions towards the plan. We examined six women and 8 veterans working for the organization. In general, it was realized that women felt that their gender did not hinder them from obtaining employment in an engineering company. In addition, they felt that they were well represented in the organization. On the other hand, the veterans reported that they were proud to be former American soldiers. They felt that the company and the government recognized their previous roles in serving the nation. They felt that they were well represented in the company.

All employers (regardless of their size or federal contractor/subcontractor status) should be required to implement and keep up-to-date affirmative action plans;

In general, companies that are covered by the affirmative action regulations in the USA are required to maintain and updated AAP when they are direct contractors or subcontractors in projects funded by the federal government. However, it is important for other organizations to ensure that they have plans to avoid discrimination of individuals based on gender, physical disabilities, race, ethnicity, nationality, previous employment (police and military veterans in particular) and other aspects.

Under the new affirmative action requirements 41 C.F.R. §§ 60-300 and 60-741, companies are measured against a certain benchmark goal for hiring people with disabilities as well as military veterans. According to the department of labor, at least 7% of the individuals employed in these companies should be set aside for the people with disabilities and military veterans. The purpose of these regulations is to ensure that there are equal chances for employment for these individuals, who have previously been discriminated in various fields and sectors.

It is also important for corporations of any kind to ensure that their workforce is comprised of at least some percentage of individuals from other minority groups, including women, youths and those form minority ethnic groups such as blacks, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics (Leuchovius, 2012). However, the companies should ensure that they use the E-verify system to ensure that each of the individuals hired meet the requirements for employment to avoid violating employment rules and hiring illegal foreigners and other prohibited groups under the US laws (Cranford, 1998).

References

Cranford, M. (1998). Drug Testing and the Right to Privacy: Arguing the Ethics of Workplace Drug Testing. Journal of Business Ethics, 17(16), 1805.

Department of Labor. (2012). The Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act. Web.

Department of Labor. (2013). Sample affirmative action program (AAP). Web.

Felsberg, E. J. (2005). Affirmative action overview for federal contractors. Employment Relations Today, 32(2), 101-105.

Leiter, S., & Leiter, W. M. (2012). Affirmative Action in Antidiscrimination Law and Policy: An Overview and Synthesis. Washington, DC: Sunny Press.

Leuchovius, D. (2012). The Rehabilitation Act and ADA Connection. Web.

The memo provides insights regarding the article by Roberts and Roach (2009) on use of social networking websites (SNWs) to evaluate candidature of job applicants. The main themes of the article identified in the memo can be summarized into three distinct points:

• Legal issues
• Authenticity of information available
• Personal profile management and self-marketing

The first theme derived from the article is legal issues regarding the use of SNW profile to shortlist candidates. The memo points out that a recruiter can gain information regarding the age or race of the candidate, which may influence her decision and lead to a biased decision. This is considered to be discriminatory by law and is illegal.

Further, the information regarding the candidate available in the SNW profile may reveal too much or too little and therefore, can be hazardous for both recruiter as well as the applicant. For instance, a candidate may provide false information to portray himself ‘good’ while another may just express his one-time personal experience to his friends but may be considered derogatory by the recruiter. Therefore, the profiles may or may not give an accurate picture of the real personality of the candidate.

The memo puts forth the third insight derived from the article i.e. to manage one’s online profile to impress future professional contacts. This is a good way to provide precise information to make an impression upon the recruiters.

One of the main themes presented in the memo is the legal issues related to use of SNW for recruitment. However, it is a useful tool this can be considered illegal. The legal issues are right as it is against law to shortlist candidates based on their race, age, or any other discriminatory information based on EEOC. Further, it is a good way for gathering more information on the candidate or doing a background check on the candidate related to rash behavior like usage of drugs. This would provide a clear understanding of the candidate’s social identity.

The memo however, fails to recognize one essential factor that the authors present i.e. the ethical issues related to use of SNW for recruitment (Roberts and Roach 112). Social and personal lives are two different worlds and traditionally have been kept separate. SNWs are usually a method of self-expression and helps in creating an online personal space. Exploitation of this personal and social sphere of a candidate by the recruiters to judge his or her social or personal actions is not ethically right. This violates the respect one has for other’s personal life and space. However, this process is a cost effective and extremely innovative tool to assess the candidates. Therefore, ethically, the recruiters should restrict themselves to professional networking websites such as LinkedIn that provides an online professional social networking sphere rather than using Facebook that is a more personal affair as individuals interact with friends and family on an online forum. This, in a way, is violation of one’s personal space and therefore, is ethically not advisable to use.

While describing the campus recruitment process Roberts and Roach brings forth the concept of personal and professional space. Violation of the personal space, even though the information is available online, is derogatory to the candidate’s personal life. This act itself, to great extent, lack professionalism, for ethically one should have respect for the other’s personal space.

Works Cited

Roberts, Sherry and Terry Roach. “Social Networking Web Sites and Human Resource Personnel: Suggestions for Job Searches.” Business Communication Quarterly, 72(1) (2009): 110-114. Print.

Executive summary

The advertisement of the trainee or apprentice kitchen hand post for young people between 16 and 18 years old from a local branch of a national cheesecake shop chain was legal. This is because these young people are of school leaving age and can chose to be employed at their will. However, there are certain limitations that may restrict the employer in terms of kind of work to give them, hours worked per day, and the health and safety measures.

Introduction

A child is any person under 18 years of age. There are certain rules which regulate where children should be employed and at what age. There are cases where these children can be allowed to work as early as 13 years.

Children under 16 years

A school aged child is any child under the age of 16 years. These children are required to be in school or in any form of educational program. A child of this age or below can only work under a written permission of the parent. In this case a parent being the father, the mother or some other person with parental responsibilities over the child. These children can be employed to deliver newspapers or they can be employed to attend shops or retail centers. The only time these children can be allowed to work is when they are out of school between 6.00 am to 10.00 p.m. Work for a child can be in form of a contract of service, supervision of other workers, assisting in profit based businesses, or voluntary work. There are some types of work that can be done by any child at any age such as participating in family businesses, work that is part of a school program, non profit making organizations, or in any form of entrainment (e.g. drama).

Children between 16 and 18 years

After the age of 16 years the child can work at his/her own discretion as long as such employment does no interfere with his/her studies. However, it is illegal to employ such a child during the time he is supposed to attend classes unless there is a notice of such provisions. There are general rules that guide children against harassment from the employer. Children are supposed to work in safe places and they are not supposed to be overworked.

Health and safety at work

If an employer is considering employing children less than 18 years, he has to first access the possibility of risks that may threaten the health and safety of such children. Attention should be paid to age, experience and other things that could endanger the health and safety of the child. If the child in question is still of school going age, the employer should give the result of the safety assessment to the parent. However, for occasional work or short term work there is no need for a safety assessment

Type of work

Some restrictions apply to children of school leaving age but less than 18 on the kind of work they should be employed to do. They are not allowed to do work that they are incapable of either physically or mentally. They should not do work involving toxic materials or chemical agents or where their health is at risk. Some conditions may allow one to do such work if they are given the necessary training, or under the supervision of a skilled person, or if the risk is reduced. These children can not work in construction works, in transport services, or in mines.

Hours of work

Young adults between 16 and 18 years old must not be allowed to work over eight hours in a given day and not more than 40 hours per week. They are also allowed to have a 30 minutes break after working for four to five hours. A child under 18 is protected against doing work between 10 pm and 6 am. However if contracted to work after 10.00 pm such work should be stopped at 11pm and should not start before 7 a.m.

Penalties

It is illegal to employ a child in a wok place that is harmful to their health and safety. In such cases the department for child protection can issue notices to the employer and the parent of the child to stop the child from working. Violation of such notices attracts a penalty of up to $36, 000 and a 3 years imprisonment. Domestic chores, traineeship, vocational placement among others can not be termed as work.

Persons who employ children or parents who allows their children to be appointed to work outside hours other than the ones allowed or to do work that is not allowed may attract a penalty of up to $24,000 and an incorporated employer could be penalized $120,000. These laws are enforced by the Department for Child Protection through their authorized officers.

Conclusion

A child is anyone under 18 years of age. A school aged child is any child under the age of 16 years. A child of this age or below can only work under a written permission of the parent. Such a child can be employed to do light chores such as delivering newspapers or attending to shops or retail centers any time from 6 pm to 10 pm. After the age of 16 years the child can work at his/her own discretion as long as employment does no interfere with their studies. The employer has to do a health and safety assessment before hiring such children and they should not be overworked.

Reference

Anon. 2010. Employment – In England: Young people and employment advice guide. Web.

Bernard, Henry. 2008. Legal provision respecting the education and employment of children in factories, &co. Harvard University Printed by Case, Tiffany & Burnham.

Department for child protection. Employment of children laws, Children and Community Services Act 2004. On-line. Web.

Horner, Leonard. 2008. The employment of children in factories and other works in the United Kingdom and in some foreign countries. Longman.

Queensland Child Employment Act 2006. On-line. Web.