The concepts of Recruitment & selection and training & development are two major areas where HRM excel. Critically discuss the importance of s

The concepts of Recruitment &
selection and training & development
are two major areas where HRM excel.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Recruitment and selection............................................................................................................3
Training and development...........................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Recruitment and selection plays a major role in the companies to identify the need for job,
define the requirements of position, advertise the position and chose the perfect person for the
job. This is also considered as the major objective of the management. The efficiency of this
process of recruiting the pool of candidates and selecting some of the skilled employees decides
the quality of staff at the organisations. Training and development is equally important as it deals
in the educational activities for enhancing the skills and knowledge of the employees along with
providing information and instructing to perform the tasks in much better way (Chandrakalaa,
2017).
Pick n Pay was established in 1967 and is considered as the second largest supermarket in
Africa. It performs its operations at more than 16,000 locations in many other countries in Africa
(Pick n Pay, 2021). The company prefers to have talented and skilled staff and also organises
training for them. The recruitment and selection methods in the company are much effective that
leads to the most qualified staff. The report will shed light on the recruitment and selection
methods and their importance in the Pick n Pay along with highlighting the benefits of training
and development in the organisations.
MAIN BODY
Recruitment and selection
Recruitment is considered as the major responsibility of the human resource department.
The HR deals in many works such as engaging the employees, developing the employees,
managing the data, statutory compliance and many other works, but the major area to be
focussed is attracting, selecting and on boarding suitable candidates for the organisation. The
process of recruitment deals in attracting qualified candidates for the job role and the selection
process deals in identifying the right candidate and selecting them. Pick n Pay considered its
employees as the biggest assets so it focuses on the recruitment and selection policies. The
company do not consider it as an operational activity but also a strategic activity.
The process of recruitment and selection in any organisation like Pick n Pay plays a major
role as it helps in attracting the effective workforce. This also helps in determining the success of
business and also affects the operations of the organisation. The main objective of the
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recruitment is attaining the quality and number of employees which can help the organisation to
achieve the goals. This process helps in creating pool of potential employees for managing the
right applicants for the right job (Chipana-Castillo, Miranda-Roca and Vicente-Ramos, 2021).
There are many methods of recruitment which are used by the organisations for recruiting the
talented and skilled candidates. The recruitment methods can be classified as internal as well as
external. These are the ways in which the employees get attracted to the companies. Some
companies like Pick n Pay use both the methods of recruitment for attracting the employees.
The internal methods are the ones in which the existing employees get promoted or shifted
to another post. These include employee referrals, job posting, employee database, job bidding
etc. The employee database in Pick and Pay helps the company to check that whether the
company has the existing employees who can fill the vacancies. The Pick n Pay uses the method
of employee referral in which the employee of the company suggests the recruiter to recruit
specific people as they have required skills and abilities. The job posting helps in making the
candidates aware of the vacancies in the company so that they can apply for the same. Job
bidding is done when the employees know that they have the skills which are required by the
company such as Pick n Pay. These internal methods give chance to the existing current
employees so that they either can get promoted or can get shift in the working hours such as from
daytime to part time (Goodman-Smith, Mirosa and Skeaff, 2020). This is advantageous for the
company as well as Human Resource Manager as they do not have to do extra work for finding
the employees from outside the company and they can get the employees from within the
company without striving much hard. In this, there is a lack of ideas and new perspectives but
the existing employees get the opportunities to get promoted and change their timings.
There are many external recruiting methods also in which the company needs fresh ideas
and creative perspectives which cannot be filled with the existing employees and there is a need
to recruit the employees from outside the company. These methods include the job fairs, media
advertising, employee agencies and internships. Pick n Pay use the method of media advertising
as the most popular method. The company needs to put up the needs of the employment through
various means of advertising such as internet, newspaper, television and radio. These give the
company an opportunity to attract broader talent through recruiting various employees. The
internet has become the most used platform through which the employees search for the
vacancies and the organisations post the vacancies in order to attract the talented and skilled
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employees. Along with this, job fair is also another method of recruitment which is used by the
employers in Pick n Pay for attracting the large number of applicants to a single location for the
interviews. The company also uses another method for the recruitment process which is
internship in which the candidates are hired by the employer for specific period of time into
technical or professional position which is related to the study area. The companies like Pick n
Pay are benefitted as they get the employees with fresh talents and skills.
After the process of recruitment, selection is done in which the best candidates are
selected from the pool of talents. Pick n Pay uses the preliminary interview as the first step of the
selection process. This helps the company in eliminating the unqualified candidates. The HR
manager of the company conducts this step via video, telephone or virtual job interview. Pick n
Pay mainly uses the telephonic interview as it helps in saving time and money. Pick n Pay also
makes use of some other tests such as vocational interest, job knowledge, work sample,
psychomotor abilities test as well as personality test (Van Esch, Black and Ferolie, 2019). The
work sample test helps the company to test the candidate’s ability for performing the task which
is required by the company which represents the job. Similarly, the job knowledge test is
organised in which it is tested that how much knowledge the candidate has regarding the job role
for which the person has applied. Pick n Pay also organises the psychomotor abilities test which
helps in assessing the coordination, strength and the agility of the applicant. On the other hand,
the vocational interest test are organised to check the interest of the candidate towards the
occupation or the job. Personality test helps in assessing the character traits and the
temperaments of the employees.
After all these tests, an employment interview is taken in which the employer and the
employee exchange the conversation for evaluating the skills and abilities as well as the
knowledge of the candidate. Then the selection decision is made. After carrying out all these
methods, the candidate with best qualification is recruited in the Pick n Pay organisation. These
help in achieving the organisational goals. After all these processes, the HR of the company is
able to select the right people which helps in producing the productive results and staying with
the organisation longer which leads to less employee turnover (Villeda and et.al., 2019). This is
how, the HR of Pick n Pay make use of the recruitment and selection processes to recruit the best
and talented employees which helps in increasing the profitability of the company.
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Training and development
Training and development are considered as the major functions of HRM department. The
HR of Pick n Pay organises various training programmes in order to enhance the skills and
talents of the employees and to make them aware of the policies and procedures of the company.
Though these programmes require substantial percentage of the expenditure by the organisation
which is a lot at the initial level but in the long run it is proved to be very beneficial. This can
also be observed that the employees who have access to the materials of training are seemed to
be more satisfied and happier (Omoikhudu, 2017). The retailer companies like Pick n Pay are
well known for its rates of high turnover so the training helps in increasing the employee
retention rates through providing knowledge and skills which are required to fulfil the
responsibilities of job. The company also focuses on the cost optimization methods such as the
online training in which the apps are used which are based on the self-paced learning.
The regular training programs helps in increasing the job satisfaction and the morale
among the employees of the company. It also helps in increasing the employee motivation. More
motivated employees help in increasing the productivity of the employees as well as the
organisations. This leads to personal as well as professional development of the employees. The
efficiency of the processes especially in the production department of the company is also
enhanced which helps in gaining financial gain (HR and Aithal, 2020). The training also
increases the capacity of the employees to adapt to the new methods of doing things using
advanced technologies as they are trained regarding the same and there is no fear within them to
test the things.
The employees of Pick n Pay if gets efficient trainings, then they become able to
contribute to the company greatly by providing new, fresh and innovative ideas which can help
in developing the new innovative strategies leading to the best products and services. This helps
the company in gaining competitive advantage among the other retailers of Africa. Training and
development also reduces the employee turnover as they feel confident and presents complete
determination and dedication towards their work. This also helps in enhancing the image and
goodwill of the company. For example, the ethics training can be organised without any reason
which builds a sense of trust in the stakeholders as well as the customers (Ruiz-Molina and Gil-
Saura, 2018). Some trainings can also helps in managing the risks which can be raised in the
company such as the sexual harassment, diversity etc. Training helps in resolving such issues
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leading to a better workplace environment and better productivity. This is how, training also
helps in giving the company much needed competitive edge by adapting the advanced
technologies. These trainings set a benchmark which helps in drawing the top-level talent (Janev,
Hadzi-Vasileva and Sofijanova, 2018). Therefore, the company Pick n Pay becomes able to
retain the skilled workforce and attracts the quality talent.
CONCLUSION
The above report focused on the well-known retailer company Pick n Pay and the ways in
which its HRM performs the functions of training & development and recruitment & selection.
The major focus of the report was on the importance of these functions in the retailer companies
of Africa. Pick n Pay must follow all the methods of recruitment so that it can gain the
advantages of all the methods. For example, through the external recruitment, the company can
gain the opportunity to attract large pool of candidates and through the use of internal
recruitment the company can become able to give opportunities to the existing employees. For
selecting the employees, the company must take every type of test so that the company can gain
in-depth insight of the employee. The company must not miss the face to face interview either at
the workplace of through some video calling apps like Zoom, Google Meet etc. as it can help to
check the confidence of the employees in presenting themselves and their knowledge. Pick n Pay
must evaluate the skills of the employees and must provide them training accordingly so that,
they do not get demotivated and can be able to give their best in performing the tasks to reach
occupational and personal goals.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chandrakalaa, G., 2017. The relationship between training and development, compensation and
benefits, working environment and retention among gen Y: A study in Malaysian
manufacturing companies (Doctoral dissertation, Universiti Utara Malaysia).
Chipana-Castillo, C., Miranda-Roca, G. and Vicente-Ramos, W., 2021. Effectiveness of
psychometric tests for the selection of personnel in jobs in the retail sector. Management
Science Letters. 11(5). pp.1583-1590.
Goodman-Smith, F., Mirosa, M. and Skeaff, S., 2020. A mixed-methods study of retail food
waste in New Zealand. Food Policy. 92. p.101845.
HR, G. and Aithal, P.S., 2020. Sales Personnel Training–An Integrated Framework for Indian
Brick-and-Mortar Retailers?. International Journal of Case Studies in Business, IT, and
Education (IJCSBE). 4(1). pp.172-187.
Janev, I., Hadzi-Vasileva, G. and Sofijanova, E., 2018. Benefits of Training and Development
for Individuals, Teams and Organizations. Journal of Economics. 3(1). pp.12-18.
Omoikhudu, J., 2017. The Impact of Training and Development on Employee Retention in the
Retail Sector, an Examination of the Role of Coaching in a Leading Retailer in Dublin,
Republic of Ireland. A Case Study of Mark and Spencer’s Store Dublin (Doctoral
dissertation, Dublin, National College of Ireland).
Ruiz-Molina, M.E. and Gil-Saura, I., 2018. Sustainable Practices in Spanish Retailing: Evidence
from Apparel and Grocery Retailers. In Food Retailing and Sustainable Development.
Emerald Publishing Limited.
Van Esch, P., Black, J.S. and Ferolie, J., 2019. Marketing AI recruitment: The next phase in job
application and selection. Computers in Human Behavior. 90. pp.215-222.
Villeda, M. and et.al., 2019. Use of social networking sites for recruiting and selecting in the
hiring process. International business research. 12(3). pp.66-78.
Online
Pick n Pay, 2021. [ONLINE]. Available through :< https://www.pnp.co.za/ >
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