There’s a really great piece over at business insider which discusses how hard it is to become a Delta airlines flight attendant. It’s a really interesting read and I suggest you take a look.
It does pose the interesting question of “is it too easy to get a job at your company”.
Recruitment is the process of
* Obtaining new staff,
* Selecting existing staff for promotions or perhaps new roles.
The requirement for recruitment is various, it could be around reacting to people leaving the company whilst it can also be reacting to organization growth. All companies recruit and almost all will have a standard process upon which to do so.
This will typically involve steps like
* Identifying the need
* Searching for candidates
* Screening candidates
* Interviewing candidates
* Making offers to candidates
* Onboarding candidates
Depending on the situation that the company finds themselves in their can be significant pressure to fill that gap – take for example if a previous employee has left suddenly and there is a critical post to fill. Or if the organization has failed to predict growth in a particular sector and there’s a last-minute rush to fill posts. Time-based pressure is not recruitments friend!
People often talk about speeding up the recruitment process but what does that mean in terms of the quality of the candidate recruited? Is this merely a case of filling a post by any means?
Looking at Delta’s recruitment policy it demonstrates that it is tough on purpose. There reason? The right recruitment not only drives people to do jobs but it also maintains the company culture. Delta clearly sees the value in the later which is why their process is so vigorous.
Indeed hiring the wrong person not only causes issues but can drive cost too, whether that’s due to underperformance in the role or needing to recruit again further down the road.
Multiply this issue for all the vacancies you anticipate and you’ve got problems for your company. That’s why getting the recruitment process and acceptable standards right is so key.
Being ahead of the curve helps.
By developing forecast manpower plans recruitment execution can be much better planned providing better time for the selection process. Indeed, advanced planning can impact in other ways too allowing the business to tailor its requirements in areas such as full/part time etc or how different parts of the organization can flex.
Risk around recruitment is high. Get it wrong consistently and you’re business will underperform. Get the process wrong and you could be forced into making the wrong decisions and driving cost. The recruitment process needs to be effective. It drives protection of the organization’s culture and values as well as driving the levels of skills and knowledge.
Finally when it comes to skills, should you take the view that whilst a level of skills and experience is required with the right candidate you can hone them when their employed through training etc and it’s much better to focus recruitment on intangible skills? It’s an interesting hypothesis.
Whatever the pressure, compromising on the recruitment process shouldn’t be the answer and perhaps Delta has it right in making their organization more difficult to get into than Harvard.