The future of recruitment and selection

There is no doubt that organisations and companies today are in very different places to where they were 20 years ago. It is not uncommon for organisations to reorganise and consider creative ways to do more with fewer resources. This particular trend has implications for the workforce, which in many ways have had to restructure the nature of jobs to become more task-oriented with clear accountabilities.

By Shamillah Wilson

10 Sep 2008

Additional pressures to be more customer-focused have also led to a movement for competency based selection.

While in the past, companies were able to offer security of employment, promotion prospects in return for loyalty, commitment and conformity, the modern organisations instead exchange high pay, rewards and a job for long hours, broader skills and tolerance of change and ambiguity. Employers now and in the future are looking for people who can ‘hit the ground running' and produce more or less instant results. Technological changes, societal and market changes are all factors that impact on how companies will be searching for, selecting and assessing their employees in the future. Herewith some key issues that companies need to consider as they shift to accommodate contextual shifts:

Recruitment (the process from advertising to induction)
As more and more qualified candidates enter the market, companies will have to shift away from just attraction to include the induction and socialisation stage in their processes. If this fit is achieved, employees can expect greater attention to ensuring they fit into the organisation in order to be fully effective. Where fit is achieved, higher levels of satisfaction commitment and performance are usually present.
Selection (instruments and methods used to assess candidates)
The focus here will shift to encompass a more holistic view of prospective employees (360 degrees) for development purposes that will enable the organisation to understand their candidates.
Assessment
Once again, the shift will move from competencies to include assessment of integrity and professional ethics, learning ability, innovation and creativity and emotional intelligence. Within this process companies will have to pay careful attention to striking a fine balance between standards, fairness, as well as walking the diversity tightrope.

As our environment changes at all levels, it is important that companies start employing an opportunistic approach in attracting and developing strategic capacity. Thus, instead of a reactive or just a strategic approach of what is needed for the here and now, the opportunistic approach to developing strategic capacity is about understanding the internal and external capacities and skills that would be needed for the business of the future.