Recruitment Competitive Advantage Essay
Propose two ways that a company can gain a competitive advantage over other companies when striving to recruit job applicants. Determine whether technology has assisted or hindered the process.
Imagine you are head of the HR department, and you have been asked to review two applicants for the sales clerk position at your company. Alice, the first applicant has 10 years of experience in sales work, but can be easily distracted. She will not work on commission and cannot work weekends. She can be a little obstinate, but has an excellent job history. Mary, the second applicant, has one year experience, but very congenial and loves working with people. Her work schedule is very flexible, but she can become a little stressed at times and has been known for having to quietly leave and regroup for a short time. Determine which candidate would be the “right fit”. Support your decision by describing the thought process that lead up to your decision.
Answer
Recruiting qualified and experienced employees can be an uphill task for HR departments in companies, especially in industries where job opportunities are more than qualified applicants. In such cases, companies are forced to employ various strategies to enhance their competitive advantage in recruitment. One strategy that can be used to increase competitive advantage in recruitment is focusing on social media presence. Having a website and other social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter help to establish a personal link with prospective candidates (Pahuja & Dalal, 2014). Secondly, companies can promise advancement opportunities for successful applicants. Job applicants tend to be attracted to promising and rapidly growing companies that will offer them an opportunity to advance their career paths. Such companies are capable of assigning employees new management positions in the future. Technology plays a critical role in the process of job recruitment. It aids in reaching a wide range of prospective candidates and engaging them even before conducting interviews.
The second applicant, Mary, is the ideal candidate for the sales clerk position. She portrays more positive qualities than Alice. Although Alice has much experience, she is very rigid and could give the company much trouble while adjusting. Less experienced employees are likely to work harder than more experienced employees as they seek to convince their employees that they were the best for the position given (Mamoon, 2015). Mary, on the other hand, having a lesser experience is likely to be very ambitious, hardworking and goal-oriented. Her congenial nature will help her fit perfectly in our existing workforce. She has no extreme negatives, and her working schedule is very flexible. Leaving and regrouping later is far much better than acting stubborn towards fellow workmates and the management. Her flexibility could be of great importance to our company as it will save us the hassle of having to seek external services when she is out of work. We could also request her to sit-in for another employee in cases of emergency.
References
Mamoon, Z. (2015). Hiring the Right People for your Organization. Global Journal of Management and Business Research Administration and Management, 13(8), 1-12.
Pahuja, S., & Dalal, R. C. (2014). Achieving Competitive Advantage through HR Practices: A Case study. Journal of Human Resource Management, 1, 35-43.
