IMPORTANCE OF THE SUCCESSFUL AND EFFECTIVE INDUCTION AND ORIENTATION

 

Induction and orientation are effective in equipping employees with the practice and core value of the organization and what is expected of them to do. (Falola, Osibanjo, Ojo 2014). According to the Zineldin (2000) Onboarding process is aimed to retain employees. Retention defined as “a commitment to still do business or exchange with a selected company on an ongoing basis”. Instead, it’s about cultivating a replacement mindset and a replacement way of watching succuss. Traditionally “Employee induction and orientation process includes showing new employees the places and things in the company, introduction with only new co-workers and wishing them good luck. Considering the new era, new employees expect far more than this and truly deserve quite traditional methods. The most common complaint that newcomers experience is that they bored.” (Saeed et al 2013).

The effectiveness of induction programme depends not only in familiarization the new employees, but it is the right strategy to make the employee as a “Right-Fit” to the organization. So, it should be done analytically and meticulously and make the workers manage with organizational culture. In other words, induction programme helps new employees to understand the organizational culture, people and individual roles. Video 1.0, explained that components of good induction as, Induction plan, Proper timing, proper communication, distribution, preparation of chick list and more details about primary and secondary induction.

Video 1.0: Elements of successful induction Programme

Source: CommLab India 2012

 

Importance of effective induction and Orientation

The induction and orientation programmes is an investment to new employees for personal carrier journey as an employee (Fae , Mark and Patrick 2006). Considering Arockiam () On-boarding data ,90% of employees make their decision to stay at a company within the first six months, 22% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days of employment, One in three newly hired employee’s leaves before the end of their first year and 69% of new employees more likely to stay because of effective onboarding. Considering the employee retention, Sumith and Ingersoll (2004) found a correlation link between induction and orientation programmes and employee retention. Successful and effective onboarding programmes increases 20% of retention of teachers. Kearncy (2011), states that following important points in onboarding process settling smoothly of the new employees in the job

a)     Settling smoothly of the new employees in the job

b)  A well developed and organized induction will form a base for future training and developments

c)     Can save the high cost of recruitment and selection

d)     Increase commitment

e)     Result in the integration of the new employees with the team

f)      Clarifying the psychological contract

The organisation which I work is leading consumer durable company within the country and everyone new employees are welcomed and are subjected to a comprehensive induction and orientation process by a team including the Human Resource personnel and heads of departments. Upon induction to the Group, All employees are walked through the whistleblower procedures upon induction to the Group. They also receive the assurance of confidentiality and anonymity in event of resorting to whistleblowing. The Company conducted a series of 11 in house training sessions for staff members on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. Regional and branch managers, Marketing staff, Recovery staff, operation staff and cashiers were trained at these sessions conducted on a regional basis. Awareness sessions on compliance and regulatory environment of finance company have been conducted during orientation sessions for newly appointed employees. Furthermore, when an employee joins us, we make sure that he or she is mentored and developed until reaching the fullness of his or her potential. As a new finance company which completing 15 years, proving that the Successfulness of employee onboarding processes by maintaining 32% of over 5-year employee retention in the finance year 2019/2020. Thus, these numbers bear testimony to our credibility as a sought-after employer within the country.

 

 References

Annual Report (2019/2020). SINGER Finance Lanka Plc.

Arockiam, K. Gunasundari, T. (2016). Efficacy of Orientation Training Programme in Organizations, ReTeLL, Vol 16.

Falola, H. Osibanjo, A. Ojo, S. (2014). Effective of training and development on employee’s performance and organizations competitiveness in the Nigerian banking industry, Bulletin of the trans.

Fae, M. Mark, S. Patrick, K 2006). The importance of effective induction and orientation activities for first-year engineers.17^th Annual conference of the Australian Association for engineering education.

Kearncy, P.S. (2011). The Importance of Induction Programmes for Beginning teachers in Independent Catholic Secondary Schools in New South Wales. The University of Notre Dame Australia, ResearchOnline@ND.

Saeed, I. Arif, M. Gul, H. Ayaz, B. Khan, Q. (2013). Employee Induction and Orientation at Public Sector Organization: A Case from Pakistan, International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies 4, pp 32.

Smith, T.M., Ingersoll, R.M. (2004). What Are the Effects of Induction and Mentoring on Beginning Teacher Attrition? American Educational Research Journal, 41(3), 681-714.

Zineldin, M. 2000, TRM Total Relationship Management, Student litterateur, Lund.

EMPLOYEE INDUCTION AND ORIENTATION

 

Induction and Orientation is the logical and essential step in human resource management process Salau, Falola, Akinbode(2014), According to the Armstrong (2003), The process of onboarding a candidate when he first joins a company and giving him the basic details about the organization, he needs to settle down quickly and happily and start work. Arockiam and Gunasundari (2016) explained that attracting and sustaining proficient employees is the pinnacle priority for all the organizations in today’s cut-throat competitive world. The induction and orientation play a crucial role in an organization to attain its long-term competitiveness. furthermore, induction and orientation process bridges the gap between fresh/new recruits and organization.

Saeed et al (2013) state that, the term induction is most commonly used in an employee context to explain the process in which employees of an organization adjust to new jobs and become familiar with the new environment. Orientation process includes, welcoming selected candidates and given the basic information about the organization. In other words, Onboarding is the process by which new hires get acclimatized to all aspects of their job rapidly and easily, and learn behaviours required to function effectively with an organization (Kumar 2017).

Video 1.0: Hr Basics - On-Boarding

Video 1.0 explained that onboarding is the integration process used to smooth transaction of new employees into new roles, and the organisational discussed about the rules, checklist of the effectiveness of the onboarding procedure.

Source; Gregg Learning 2017

Purpose of Induction and orientation

“The main purpose of efficient induction practices should be to assets new employee of staff with the “settling down” operation. Getting into a replacement carrier is a demanding encounter, due to of new conditions and requirements also as anxieties connected with the looking absurd” (Saeed 2013). In other words, the purpose of the induction process is to facilitate the transaction of a new employee into the working environment and enable them to respond to new responsibilities (Ogunbaneru 2004). As per Amstrong (2003),” Induction provide the chance to shape work-related attitudes and enhance organizational commitment.

Sadee et al (2013), states that Induction is a short-term activity while orientation is a long-term activity. Induction is given an overall preview of the organization like introductory videos and presentations. Orientation is a practical overview of the company which includes an introduction to new employees, making the newcomer familiar with everyone and everything giving him a realistic picture of the environment of the company he is joining. Considering the current procedure of induction and orientation is not an obligation of HR alone, every front-line manager should also be a part of this process starting from the very first preliminary stage. Also, the method must be considered as a comprehensive procedure and not some separate standalone routine actions (Kumar 2017). furthermore, (Otoo, Assuming and Agyel 2018), explained that recruiting internally is extremely for growth of the organization because it reduces cost as compared to recruiting externally induction is not needed as the employees already know about the company.

The visionary Management team of Singer (Sri Lanka) Plc, states that, “it is important and useful for our employees to have a macro picture of Singer’s operations. The formal induction and visits to the retail outlets of the Company’s channels of distribution offer a broad overview of the whole business upon joining. Guided visits to Company locations like factories and warehouses provide a much-needed real-world visual element and exposure that help them remember and relate better through their jobs to the Organization’s grander objectives”.

 

References

Annual Report (2018/2019). SINGER (Sri Lanka) Plc.

Arockiam, K. Gunasundari, T. (2016). Efficacy of Orientation Training Programme in Organizations 16.

Kumar, N. (2017). New Employee Onboarding Process in an Organization, Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies.

Armstrong, M.A (2003) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (9th ed.). Kundli, replica press ltd.

Saeed, I. Arif, M. Gul, H. Ayaz, B. Khan, Q. (2013). Employee Induction and Orientation at Public Sector Organization: A Case from Pakistan, International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies 4, pp 32.

Ogunbameru O.A (2004) Organizational Dynamics. Ibadan, Spectrum Books Ltd.

Otoo, I. Assuming, J. Agyei, P. (2018). Effectiveness of Recruitment and Selection Practices in Public Sector Higher Education Institutions European Scientific Journal May 2018 edition Vol 14.

Salau, O. Falola, H. Akinbode, J. (2014). Induction and Staff Attitude towards Retention and Organizational Effectiveness, IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM), Vol16, pp47-52.

EFFECTIVENESS AND CHALLENGES OF EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PRACTICES

 

Recruitment and selection are one of the basic functions of human resource management. There is a clear difference between recruitment and selection (Otoo, Assuming and Agyel 2018). In other words, recruitment is the process of attracting a large pool of qualified people for employment. This involves planning for human resource to job design, job description, job analysis, creating awareness among others (Walker et al 2009). Guptha and Jain (2019) explained that the selection process able to divided candidates to two classes. Those who are providing employment and those who are not to be. Barbar (1998), argues that “The recruitment and selection procedure is a vital function of the human resource division of every organization and very crucial function as it affects the success of the organization”.

Effectiveness of Employee Recruitment and Selection Practices

According to the Barber et al (1999), the recruitment process is effective if it brings enough pool of applications and the selection process is handled with ease. The effectiveness & efficiency of the selection procedure is directly influenced by whatever happens during the recruitment process. As per Otoo (2018), management of a diverse workplace effectively, an organization must hire the most capable candidate for a vacancy, while being mindful of the necessity to build a labour force that is representative of the greater business community. This may be attained by using more appropriate and inclusive recruitment and selection strategies. Furthermore, the principal purpose of recruitment practice is to attract adequate and suitable potential employees to apply for vacancies in an organization and the principal purpose of selection activities, by comparison, is to identify the best-suited applicants and persuade them to accept a position in the organization. The importance of having efficient and effective procedures for recruitment and selection can be hardly be exaggerated (Diarmuid 2015).

To ascertain the effectiveness of several recruiting sources and methods, it is important to evaluate recruiting efforts. Organizations evaluate recruiting success to see how their recruiting efforts compare with their goals and budget, past patterns, and the recruiting performance of other organizations. Following Video 1.0 explained about Effectiveness, Quantity of applications, Quality of applicants, Recruiting metrics including Time to fill, Recruiting cost, Cost and benefits analysis, Selection rate, Acceptance rate and success base rate.

Video 1.0: Recruiting Evaluation and Metrics

(Source: Gregg Learning 2018)

Effectiveness depends on the performance of an organization’s human resource capital. To reduce the risk of employees talking flight organizations need to evaluate their recruitment/selection strategy comprehensive evaluation of recruitment strategy allows organisations to identify internal capability and gaps, employee commitment levels and the corresponding cost-effectiveness of that strategy (Diarmuid 2015). In the Sri Lankan context, leading private bank CEO of Pan Asia Bank has made a vital decision to recruitment and selection process. Bank management change their strategy to provide more progression opportunities within the bank to own officers instead of hiring from outside. As per Deputy general managers view, this has been a great source of encouragement to own organizational staff to remain with the bank and enhance their competitiveness (Jayasinghe 2019).

Challengers of recruitment and selection practices

Considering the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process, organizations need to face a set of challenges Kaplan and Norton (2004), and Zinyemba (2013).

1)     Poor Human Resource Planning

Effective human resource planning translates the major organizational goals into specific human resource objectives, policies and practice. However, human resource planning affects the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process. That is, the organization will not be informed of its correctly human resource needs, which cause the recruitment and selection may process to recruit persons who do not fit for the job (Kaplan and Norton 2004).

 

2)     Cost of the Recruitment Process

The actual cost of hiring new employees can vary between industries and regions, but once all of the line item costs have been factored in, it’s surprisingly easy to see the bottom-line figure. According to Video 2.0 described, Breakdown of hiring cost, Cost of bad hires, the impact of bad hire, four courses of bad hires and the steps of hiring right candidates.

Video 2.0: The cost of hiring new employees

Source Recruiterbox.com 2015

 

According to the Staffing practices in the private sector in sri lanka, Wickramasinghe, V. (2007) noted that, the usage of more sophisticated selection methods could be quite costly if organizations do not have trained staff and require the help of professional psychologists from outside the organization to administer and interpret test results. However, the misuse of such instruments may be even costly to the organization and may also be demoralizing to the new hire who may find him/herself in the wrong job. This could demotivate the new hire as well as the rest of the staff.

1) Inappropriate Methods of Selection

Birago (2014) state that, A set of methods, such as application forms, interviews, formal tests, references, assessment centres and official transcripts are used by organizations in the selection process. A firm needs to select a method that is most suitable to the job positions. Also, HR experts generally drive the staffing process and the purpose of the staffing is to fulfil the requirements of the business, and the skill levels presented by each new candidate is likely to be judged better if the line managers are involved in the recruitment and selection practices. Dess and Jason (2001) suggest that in business strategy implementation the involvement of line managers in the staffing process is vital for ensuring recruitment and selection to meet business needs. In other words, the line managers should be the centre point around which the recruitment and selection process evolved with HR playing a facilitator role.

2) Nepotism and Favoritism

Nepotism is defined by Peters et al. (1998) as “showing favouritism toward relatives, family members of current employees when hiring new employees”. Policies against this practice, where present, are considered as enhancing the effectiveness of selection and thereby person-job fit. Considering the Sri Lankan service sector organization, Samarakoon, Sureshchandra and Dharmasiri (2008) found that the presence of anti-nepotism policies positively influences the level of the person-jab fit. Where current trends of practice are concerned, it was found that most practitioners realize the need for impartiality in selection decision but tend to have a preference for applicants who are known to current employees.

3) Efficiency, Control and Social Justice

As per Birango (2014),” There is the disagreement of other key issues and argument that run through analysis of human resource management and recruitment and selection: efficiency, control, and the difficulty of orienting practice towards social justice”. Burton (2001) pointed out that, the first two problematics, as have been central to the management of people for as long as managers have been present in organizations. The latter is also the same across all organizations but is a specific academic and policy concern for smaller or growing organizations (Burton 2001). In recruitment and selection practice the establishment of formalized selection structure and norms of acceptable differentiation may be seen as an attempt to enable managers to navigate between efficiency, control and social justice.

References

Barber, A. E. (1998). Recruiting employees: Individual and Organizational Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Barber, A. E., Wesson, M. J., Roberson, Q. M., & Taylor, M. S. (1999). A tale of two job markets: Organizational size and its effects on hiring practices and job search behaviour. Personnel Psychology, 52(4), 841- 868.

Birango, A A.(2014). An Evaluation of the Recruitment and Selection Policies and Practices of the National Health Insurance Authority,Brong-Ahafo Region; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Burton, M D.(2001). The Company They Keep: Founders' Models for Organizing New Firms, Cornell University ILR School

Dess, G G. and Jason, D.S. (2001). Voluntary turnover, social capital, and organizational performance. Academy of Management Review, pp.26(3): 446-456.

Gupta, R.and Jain, T.(2014). Role of recruitment & Selection policies in central Co-operative Banks, International monthly refereed journal of research in management & technology, Vol iii, ISSN-2320-0073.

Kaplan, S. R. & Norton, D. P. (2004). The Balanced Scorecard. Boston: MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Otoo, I.Assuming, J.Agyei, P.(2018). Effectiveness of Recruitment and Selection Practices in Public Sector Higher Education Institutions European Scientific Journal May 2018 edition Vol 14.

Peters, Lawrence H, Greer Charles R and Youngblood Stuart A., (1998). Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Human Resource Management, Massachusetts, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Samarakoon,U.Sureshchandra,R. and Dharmasiri,A. (2008): Factors that Influence Hiring the Right Person for the Right Job in Sri Lankan Service Sector Organizations: Sri Lankan Journal of Management: Volume 13, Nos. 3 & 4, July-December, 2008.

Walker, H. J., Feild, H. S., Giles, W. F., Armenakis, A. A., & Bernerth, J. B. (2009). Displaying employee testimonials on recruitment web sites: Effects of communication media, employee race, and job seeker race on organizational attraction and information credibility. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5), 1354-1364.

Wickramasinghe, V (2007). Staffing practices in the private sector in Sri Lanka, Career Development International, Vol 12, ISSN-1362-0436, pp108-128.

Zinyemba, A. Z. (2013). The Challenges of Recruitment and Selection of Employees in Zimbabwean Companies. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)(0nline), 2310-7064.

ROLE OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION POLICIES IN SRI LANKAN ORGANIZATIONS

 

Human resources are a term used to define the candidates who comprise the workforce of an organization and organizations to describe the workforce capacity available to devote to the achievement of its strategies has drawn upon theory developed in organizational psychology. Better recruitment and selection strategies result in improved organizational outcomes (Gupta and Jani 2014). Hughes and Rog (2008), stats that, it is explained that the ability of an organization to find, attract and retain best employees was perceived is the two most critical people management problems that are faced by organisations today. According to Amin et al (2014), to achieve this purpose, it is required to have sound human resource management practices. ‘Among the varied responsibilities of human resource management, the most critical are the recruitment of the most excellent employees and keeping them happy and on the job’ (Carter-ward et al, 2006).

Economically Active / Inactive Population

Sri Lanka labour force survey – 2019, Labour force or synonymously currently the economically active population is one of the most widely used measures of the labour market. It computes the employment and unemployment circumstances of the economy and the current employment characteristics of the population. All persons who were employed or unemployed during the reference time period of the survey is referred to as the economically active population. In other words, the content of all persons above a specific age (15 years and above) of either gender who furnish the supply of labour for the production of economic goods and services during a specified time period. The currently economically active population or the labour force is usually recognized as the sum of employed and unemployed population. Economically inactive means, all persons who neither worked nor available/looking for work during the reference period and those active and inactive details shown as follows.

Figure1.0: Economically Active / Inactive population by gender

(Source: Annual Report – Sri Lanka labour force survey 2019)

In 2019, an estimated economically active population is around 8.6 million, and of that about 64.6 percent are male. That is about 5.6 million. Majority among the economically inactive population are females (73.7%). That is about 5.8 million.

Sector-wise employment

Considering the sector-wise employment in Sri Lanka following table shows area-wise details for the year 2019

Figure 2.0: Currently Employed Person by Employment Status

Source: Annual Report – Sri Lanka Labour Force survey – 2019)

According to the above figure 2.0, 4,738,244 (57.9%) workers working under the public and private sector organizations as salaried employees. Under this category, private sector employment is 74.3% and the public sector was 25.6%. The rest of 3,442,449 (42%) labour force is under an employer, Own account workers and unpaid family workers categories (Annual Report – Sri Lanka Labour Force survey – 2019).

 

Recruitment / Selection practices in Government and Privet Sector Organizations

Considering the above details, Private and Public sector organizations play a most important role in labour force while implementing and continuing various recruitment and selection policies. According to the Ministry of Public Services , Provincial councils and local government ,all public/Government sector organizations in sri lanka governing under “Establishment code” which is issued by the Secretary of the Ministry in Charge of the subject of Public Administration on the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers and revision of the provisions of Establishments Code is made by Public Administration circulars issued by the Secretary of the Ministry in Charge of the subject of Public Administration on the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. “The Establishments Code consists of two volumes.

The first volume includes chapters from I to XXXIII and Chapter XXXVI while the second volume contains Chapter XLVII and XLVIII. The first volume of the Establishments Code has been issued in 1972 as a complete document to be effective from 01.01.1972. Its first edition and the edition effective at present have been issued on 01.09.1985 and 08.07.2013 respectively. The second volume of the Establishments Code has been issued in 1974 as a complete document. Its first edition and the edition effective at presently have been issued on 08.04.1981 and 02.08.1999 respectively.

Establishment code Chapter II, states about Recruitment Procedure and onboarding process in government organizations and it consists 17 subheadings which covers all related areas. All state sector organizations should follow the instructions under the Establishment code for recruitment and selection process.

Role of Private sector organizations in Sri Lanka placed higher weighting on the outside labour market in recruitment and use of objective criteria in selection. The common ground for the companies is the heavy role that interviews, written tests/exams, psychometric tests and assessment centres play as selection methods (Wickramasinghe 2007). As per Wickramarathne (2009), According to annual reports, organizations that are smart enough to set overall information system policies in advance seem to acquire HRIS to fulfil their HR administrative proceedings as well as human resources planning functions. Though the existing HRIS supports HR planning functionalities of the organizations, some organizations do not fully utilize them for recruiting, selection, training and development due to the dependence on traditional methods or due to unawareness.

Referring to the Multi-National organization's procedures, Unilever (Sri Lanka) Ltd has well planned, pre decide system for recruiting it called as Man Power Planning it happens annually on every June or July. This will manage by HR business partners, Recruitment manager and line managers. In this meeting they talk about all their new plans, current situation of the company, about new products they are going to introduce to the market, targets to be achieved in the future etc. Specially they discuss new opportunities in separate sections, who are going to leave the company in upcoming year and if there are new brands to introduce new employees to handle it as an example new brand “Lakhme” come to the market they have to decide what kind of new employments will be required, what kind of employees should recruit, when they should recruit and what are the requirement, they should have likewise organization has to decide the human resource for that new product.

Organization use two kinds of methods to recruit employees which are external and internal. When they recruit, they unable to give any priority to any of recruitment method because as a profit-oriented organization they need more suitable, talented and skill full employees. The method they use for

recruitment depends on the job. As per the practice of Unilever (Sri Lanka) Ltd, shortlisted candidates call for preliminary interview, written test and finally panel interview with line director, senior HR business partner. After they selected an employee, they call him for a medical test in that test they test whether the selected candidate is fit enough for the employment or not. For the medical examinations, they have agreements done by the hospitals and they do the medical tests for the employees and the medical reports go to the Horana Unilever medical centre for the approvals. Selected candidate has an induction program to the newest employee this induction program will cover all three areas Organizational induction, employee induction and job induction. The selected employee will have a three weeks of organizational and employee induction and three months job induction under a supervisor (Wickramasinghe 2012).

Wickramasinghe (2007) status that Sri Lankan companies highly rely on interviews as a selection method. Many of the inherent problems of interviewing may be reduced due to the use of panel interviews and a number of stages in the selection process. However, interview decisions would be inappropriate without complementary onboarding practices such as training of interviewers, consistency in interview evaluations, common grading system in defining personal attributes and the evaluation of interview outcomes on the basis of job performance. Hence, the use of personal interviews in Sri Lankan organizations needs to be developed along with other related HR practices.

Reference

Amin,M,Ismail. Rasid,SZA. Selemani,RDA,(2014). The impact of human resource management practices on performance, The TQM Journal 26, pp 125-142.

Annual Report (2019) Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey.

Carter-ward, MA.Prince,SE. and Quayle,E (2006). Best practices in recruitment and retention.

Establishment Code (2013). Recruitment Procedure and Appointments, Chapter II.

Gupta, R.and Jain,T.(2014). Role of recruitment & Selection policies in central Co-operative Banks, International monthly refereed journal of research in management & technology, Vol iii, ISSN-2320-0073.

Hughes,JC and Rog,E (2008).Talent Management, International Journal of contemporary Hospitality Management 20, pp.743-757.

Wickramasinghe, AGRS. (2012). Recruitment, selection and Reward system in Unilever (Sri Lanka) Ltd, National Institute of Business Management, pp 6-9.

Wickramasinghe,V (2007). Staffing practices in the private sector in Sri Lanka, Career Development International, Vol 12, ISSN-1362-0436, pp108-128. 

EMPLOYEE SELECTION

 

EMPLOYEE SELECTION

 

Employee selection is a major human resource function in a work organization. This refers to the process that employers use to make a decision concerning which individuals from a group of choices for a particular job or job roles within the organization (Fari and Nancy. 2010). In other words, the selection process choosing individuals with the correct qualifications needed to fill jobs in an organisation. Without a qualified workforce, an organization is for less likely to succeed (Mathis and Jackson 2010). Furthermore, Selection is the process of attracting individual who has appropriate qualifications to fill jobs in an organisation. The selection process is much more than choosing the best candidate. It is an attempt to strike a happy balance between what the applicant can and wants to do and what the organization requires (Gupta and Jain 2014).

In the selection process, employers assess applicants characterises in an attempt to set on the “fit” between the job and applicant characterises. The most frequently used selection methods are the application form, Interviews, Employment test and assessment center. In general, the greater the skill requirements and work demands of an vacancy, the greater the number and variety of selection tools the organization will use. (Daft 2014).Guptha (2014),states selecting the right employees is important for three main reasons: performance, costs and legal obligations, and is as given below.

1)     Performance

Workforce with right skills will do a better job for any organization and for the owner. Employees without these compulsory skills or who are abrasive would not perform effectively and the company performance will suffer to a great extent. So, there is a time to screen out unacceptable and to choose the better and perfect candidate that can effectively contribute to company success.

2)     Cost

Cost is important because it is expensive to hire employees so cost-benefit ratio have to be considered while hiring of employees in order to avoid any unnecessary wastage of money and the valuable resources .The total value/cost of hiring a manager can easily be 10 times as high as once one add search fees, interviewing time, reference checking, and travel and moving expenses.

3)     Legal Obligations

Finally it is important because of the two legal implications of incompetent hiring. Firstly, equal employment law requires non-discriminatory selection process for selected groups. Secondly, courts will find the employer responsible when employees with criminal records or other problems use access to customers’ homes to commit crimes. Lawyers call hiring workers with such backgrounds, without proper protection, negligent hiring. So, the negligent hiring highlights the need to think through.

In Sri Lankan context, Jayasingha ( 2019 ) stated that , our country’s youth are trained to join the work force at various government and non-government tertiary education and training institution in a vast spectrum of skills, the annual output of trained or skilled labour joining our existing workforce is not prepared and adequately qualified to meet the demands of the current market requirement , especially in skilled labour , according to industrialists and other businessman.Sri lankan employment details on level of education in last 7 years as follows in figure 1.0.

Figure 1.0: Employment by level of Education (2013 – 2019)

 (Source – Labour Force Survey – Annual Report 2019)

According to the Sri Lankan labour force survey (2019), level of education among employed has been increasing over the previous years. However, still considerable part of employment population has grade 05 0r below level of education and also major group shows in grade 6-10 group near to 48%. Furthermore some students continue their education at other professional institutes, and other follow diplomas and other skill based training, thousands of the students who leave the education system with basic academic qualifications enter our workforce , often without any formal training of skill ( Jayasinghe 2019).Hence considering the above indications of labour market , organisations should pay more attention to their selection process.

Selection Process / Procedures

Referring the Human resource management practices in Sri Lankan listed firms Serasingha and Opatha (2007), followings are the seven steps of selection procedure.

1.     Formality of selection process

2.     Inclusive of general comprehensive strategy

3.     Application Evaluation

4.     Holding Interviews

5.     Conduction examinations where appropriate

6.     Background Investigation

7.     Medical Test

Also, Communication of selection policy to all concerned, training all relevant personals in selection, Use the different types and formats of interviews, use of different types of exams, Testing validation of selection tools, testing reliability of selection tools have mentioned as selection practices (Serasingha and Opatha 2007).

The practical application of above methods/Process, Singer Sri Lanka group are practicing and using it very successfully in past number of years referring their Human resource policy. Organization have 05 employee categories as Key & Senior Management, Middle Management, Junior Management, Executives and Non- Management employees. Organization HR policy includes the clear guild lines to selection process for mentioned categories considering the job role and employment group. Human resource department is following seven methods which mentioned in Human resource management practices in Sri Lankan listed firms journal done by Serasingha and Opatha (2007), with changing number of interviews. Basically, the Non-Management group have 03 interviews like as two face to face interviews and written interviews. Basically, management staff selection interviews have four or five steps, like two face to face interviews with middle management and senior management panel, report writing test after field visit, Lunch/Dinner interview and finally face to face discussion with Chief Exactive officer / Chairman. Also, organisation is following background investigation and medical test as mentioned by Serasingha and Opatha (2007). In the current Covid -19 pandemic situation, company conduct interviews through online platforms like Zoom, Hangout or WhatsApp.

References

Annual Report (2019) – Sri Lanka Labour Force Servery, Department of Census & Statistics.

Daft, R. (2014). New era of Management, 11^th Edition, Cengage Learning India Private Limited.

Fari,L. & Nancy, T (2010). Hand Book of Employee Selection, Taylor and Franas Group, LLC, International Stranded Book No 978-0-8058-6437-3, p01.

Gunathilaka, R. Mayer, M.& Vodopiveo, M. (2010). The challenge of youth employment in Sri Lanka, The international bank for reconciliation and development, ISBM: 978-0-8213-8117-5 ,p84.

Gupta, R.& Jain, T. (2014).  Role of Recruitment & Selection policies in Central Co-Operatives Banks: International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research in Management & Technology.

Jayasinghe, R. (2019). Bunding the Gap between employer expectations and Employee Skills, “bmd” The magazine for achievers. Bacopa Worldwide (pvt) Ltd, p25.

Mathis, L. & Jackson, J. (2010). Human Resource Management 13^th Edition, p 214.

Serasingha, D.K. Opatha, H. (2007). Human Resource Management Practices in Listed Firms in Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management Vol 01