Marks & Spencer: Traditional Interview Process Effectiveness in HRM

This essay provides an analysis of the effectiveness of traditional interview processes in human resource management (HRM), specifically within the context of Marks & Spencer (M&S) Group Plc. It begins by defining human resources and HRM, highlighting the importance of selecting the right candidate through interviews for organizational growth. The essay delves into the functions of HRM, including recruitment, selection, and maintaining good working conditions, with a focus on the interview process. It explores various steps involved in the traditional interview process, such as job descriptions, posting jobs, scheduling interviews, conducting preliminary and in-person interviews, and making a hire. The essay also discusses the effectiveness of traditional interview processes, including soft skill assessments, job auditions, and casual setting meetings, and their impact on selecting high-quality applicants. It emphasizes the advantages of traditional interviews, such as understandability and comfort for applicants, and the importance of predictive validity. The essay concludes by suggesting ways to improve the predictive validity of interviews by focusing on job-related questions and providing training to interviewers.

Managing Human
Resource Interim

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Human resource refers to those people and persons who make up the workforce of an
organisation, business industry and economy. Interview is a multi stage process that is used by
organisations to hire human resource for the purpose of organisational growth. It is important to
select a right person for a right job (Berber and Slavić, 2016). This essay related to Marks &
Spencer group Plc which is a major British multinational retailer, was founded in 1884 by
Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. It specialise in selling apparel, home appliances and luxury
food products. In this report will be discussed about the effectiveness of using traditional
interview processes to select high quality applicants for vacant positions. Human resource
management involves management functions such as planning, organising, directing and training
and controlling the workers and employees. It reefers to a department in an organisation that
handles all aspects of employees and help in maintaining industrial relationship, looking after
welfare of workers or safety issues and communicating with all employees al all levels or
maintaining awareness of an compliance with local , state and federal laws.
MAIN BODY
Human resource refers to defines both the people who work for an organisation and the
department which is responsible to manage the resources related to employees. In M&S, it can
be a department within a business that is responsible for all things which are related to the
workers as well as employees. In an organisation, human resource is the company department
which has charged with finding, screening, recruiting and training job candidates and conducting
employee benefits programs so that that they can make improvement in their skills and
knowledge and feel motivated or help in organisational growth. Human resource management is
the strategic approach to the effective management of the people in an organisation so that they
can help the business to achieve its business objectives. It can be a process of recruiting,
choosing, selecting, organising training and development, analysing and the performance and
providing benefits and motivating employees (Daly and et. al., 2014. There are various functions
of HRM that analyse and seek to plan to used a range of activities which is important to to select
skilled applicants for the vacant posts.
Maintaining good working conditions is a function of human resource management
which is responsible to provide good working environment to the employees and workers so that
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they can like the workplace and doing their work properly in an effective manner. Under its, the
management department of the company, provide motivation to the employees so that they make
contribution in organisational to achieve the business objective of the company. In M&S, HRM
should come up with a system to provide financial and non financial benefits to the workers form
the different departments.
Recruitment and selection is an important function of HRM and it is the process of
recruiting, choosing selecting and hiring potential and skilled applicants based on objective
criteria for a particular job (McGuire, 2014). The main objective of this process is to attract the
qualified, skilled and talented candidates for filling the vacant positions and encourage the
unqualified candidates to opt themselves out. Before using this recruitment and selection
function, the organisation must execute proper staffing plans and should grade the number of
employees they are going to need. This function is important for M&S because it help in
reducing the costs of mistakes such as engaging incompetent, unmotivated and under-qualified
employees. Under this function the management department of the company can use various
methods such as interview, aptitude tests and others to hire skilled employees for the vacant
positions.
Present time, in most of organisations, the HR manger of the company prefer interview as
a tool and technique to select high quality candidates for vacant posts. Interview is a
conversation where questions are asked and answers are given. Interview process is a multi
stage process for hiring new candidates. In M&S, this process include various steps such as
writing a job description, posting a job, scheduling interviews, conducting preliminary
interviews, conducting in person interviews, following up with candidates and making a hire.
Writing a job description, this is the first step of interview process. In M&S, the HR manager of
the company design an job description according to the vacant posts. In it, they mentioned about
the job role of the post, require qualifications, skills, experience, job duties and others. Posting a
job, it is the next step, after designing the job description they post it by using various
promotional tools such as internet, social media, organisational website and others. So that they
can provide information and notification regarding the vacant positions. Scheduling interviews,
it is the third step of interview process (Mello, 2014). In it, after posting the notification related
the vacant position, the manger organise and conduct interview so that they can select the
qualified candidate by analysing their skills and knowledge according the positions.
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Conducting preliminary interviews, it is a sort of filtering process which can be used by
the HR manager of M&S to sort out the best candidates pool to interview. These kind of
interview are mainly conducted through phone or may even be Skype. In this step, an initial
meeting is organised by the management department of the company to gather basic information
about the candidates that how an applicant's goals, skills and qualifications can be provide
benefits an organisation's needs (Petersen, 2016). Conducting in person interviews, it is face to
face interview. In M&S it can be a conversation where question are asked and answers are given.
In it, the manager of the company basically asked questions to candidates about the vacant posts
and about the educational background. So that they can analyse about the capabilities and
educational abilities that is suitable for the vacant position and take responsibilities of a
particular post. Make a hire, after completing all steps, the manager find and select a qualified
candidate which is fit in the role of vacant position. In M&S, they hire the candidates so that they
can help the company to increase its profit and enhance productivity.
There are two processes of interviews such as traditional process and modern process of
interview that can be used by organisations to select the candidates. Traditional process, it is an
interview process that is used by the organisations to hire the employees. In M&S, in it, the HR
manager ask candidate about their skills and experience to determine and analyse if they are fit
for the job and able to take responsibilities of the vacant post's job role. It is an effective process
for selecting an employee for the vacant position because it is time consuming process and the
manager can easily analyse the skills and education of the candidates when they are organise
recruitment process with the help of interview method. Traditional interview might give a decent
idea of how candidates present themselves, think on their feet and answer questions. In M&S,
when the HR manger of the company use traditional process of interview, they follow an proper
formate to select the right applicant for filling the vacant posts. There are various traditional
interview processes that are monitored by them to determine the abilities of applicants.
Soft skill assessment, It is a process which shows the more transferable skills of a
candidate such as communication, decision making, collaboration, team work, time management
and others. In it, the manager analysed that the candidate has required skills that are need in the
vacant job role such as good communication skill and decision making (Pfeffer, 2014). For this,
the manager can use high tech tools such as Koru and Pymetrics draw on neuroscience to assess
candidates soft skills like team work and flexibility. With the help of soft skill assessment, they
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can determine the skills which are needed in a particular job role. For example, if there is a
vacant position for account manager then the manger analysed numerical ability, good
communication skill, time management skill so that the person can fulfil the requirement of the
job role. Job auditions, It is a typical part of selection because in M&S, a task is provide to the
candidates and ask them to work on it or complete it so that the manager can analyse their
working style. In it, they can include aptitude tests, writing tests and others (Poór and et. al.,
2014). For example, if they hire a HR manager then they can provide a topic for writing so that
they can check their written communication skill. Because it is the important highly needed skill
for a HR manger.
Meeting in casual settings, various organisation have long enjoyed interviews in casual
settings so that they can know about the some personal and professional information about the
candidates. In M&S, in it, the manager include to have dinner, lunch and others with their
candidates to see how they act in the real world and to feel them comfortable so that they can
make open communication with them. With the help of all these, the HR manager of the
company try to know that an individual is capable for the vacant position.
Effectiveness of using traditional interview processes, these process of traditional
interviews are effective in use when the HR manager selecting employee for the vacant positions
because it help the organisation to select a new employees from the external labour market.
External labour market refers to the outside of the company when a firm select a candidate
outside from the company for filling the vacant positions. By using traditional interview process,
the manger can get correct and relevant information about the candidate. In M&S, one of the
most important advantage of the traditional interview process is that it is easily understandable
by the applicants and they are comfortable with it. When candidates are nervous going into an
interview, this interview process is a known interview approach which will often put them at
ease a little faster than others. With the help of soft skill assessment process, the manager of the
company can identifying the required skills tat are needed for the vacant position. By using this
process they can check the capabilities of the applicants that they are able to handle the job
responsibilities by using their skills and help in achieving organisational growth (Riccucci,
2017). This process provide a positive experience to the candidates.
Job Audition is a more realistic snapshot of candidates personality because in it, the
manager check their abilities by providing a task or work to the candidates so that they can
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analyse that they re capable to do work according to their job role. If the company use it, they
can get a skilled and capable candidate which help the company in operating its business,
achieving it business objectives and increasing profit or enhancing productivity. By using the
process of meeting in casual setting, the manager can getting information about the behaviour of
candidates and can observe that how they act in real world. By using this process, the manager
can get an applicant which has needed skills and behave ethically so that help in maintaining the
workplace environment.
Predictive validity is the extent to which a test and other predicts some future or desired
outcome (Russell, 2016). It can usually measured by the correlation between the test score and
certain criterion. In M&S, the management department of the company can use aptitude test,
ability test and others to predicts the validity of the interview process when it select candidates
for the vacant positions. To make importune son that the predictive validity of interviews might
be increased, the management of the company can follow some process. By making development
in job related interviews questions the manager can make improvement so that an interview
focuses on the knowledge, skills, abilities and characteristics of the candidates which are
required for a particular job. By providing training to interviewers, the management department
of the company can predictive validity of interviews so that it might be increased. When
interviewers are trained, subsequent interviews are more reliable and valid and they also update
with the use of new technologies and have information about them. It help the company to select
skilled and knowledgable applicant which help in achieving organisational objectives. By
establishing a standard process of evaluation, the organisation can make improvement in
interview process. Scoring guides are an important method which can add structure to the
interview process. Research can help in finding that scoring guides with behavioural benchmarks
improve interview reliability and validity.
The 8-box model, this model is developed by Paul Boselie and this model shows
different external and internal factors that influence the effectiveness of what a HR manger do in
HR when they select an applicant. When the organisation hire an employees from external labour
market, they should consider the required skills and education related to the vacant post (Storey,
2014). The organisation's history, culture and the technology used are all factors that influence
how the candidates communicate to HR when they are participate in interview process so that the
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person can easily determine their skills in appropriate manner . The HR strategy consists of six
parts.
Intended HR practices, It refers to the designed HR practices such as recruitment,
training and other. IN M&S, the HR manager follow these practice and select candidate by
applying designed methods and processes. Actual HR practices, it refers to great intentions but
the executions of HR practices is a cooperation between HR and the manager. In it, when the
mangers decides to do things differently (Thirkell and Ashman, 2014). For example, earlier, the
management department of the company use fixed processes and methods to select applicant but
now these days, if the company select a high quality candidate for vacant positions, they can use
various practices and techniques such as telephonic interviews, Skype interviews and various
others. For analysing the skills of a candidate, they can use aptitude test method, ability test and
others. Perceived HR practices, it is related to employees that how the employees perceives that
what is going on in the company. If the hiring process is organised by the company, the HR
manger are perceived in a different way. They perceived HR practices and methods and use them
to hire employees for filling the vacant posts. HR outcomes, It refers to those outcomes that are
found by the HR manager in terms of talented and skilled candidates. HR outcomes lead to
critical HR goals such as cost effectiveness, flexibility, legitimacy and others which in turn leads
to ultimate business goals in form of profit and others.
This model is effective for hiring the employee because with the help of this theory, the
HR manger of M&S can select quality candidates for filling the vacant positions (Tyson, 2014).
Within the company, it help the organisation to achieve organisational objective, increasing
profit and productivity.
CONCLUSION
From the above information, it can be concluded that in HRM, skilled and knowledgable
human recourse are most important. Here, human resource refer to employees and workers who
help the company to achieve its organisational growth. For this, it is required to have qualified
employees within the company. For this, the firm can use interview process to select an applicant
which help the organisation in the growth of the company. In this essay, the process of interview
is defined and traditional interview process is also described by including relevant points.
Effectiveness of using traditional interview process is explained and the theory of 8-box model is
described in context of choosing high quality candidates for vacant posts.
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REFERENCES
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subsidiaries of multinational companies in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of East-
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Online
Traditional interview process. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/interview-questions/2018/5-new-
interviewing-techniques-that-you-need-to-know-about>.
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