Human Resource Management: Job Descriptions, Recruitment and Appraisal

This report provides an overview of key aspects of Human Resource Management (HRM), starting with the distinction between job descriptions and job specifications. It explores various recruitment methods, both internal and external, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. The report then presents examples of general and specific interview questions tailored for different roles within an organization, such as a SPA receptionist, massage therapist, and SPA manager. The significance and process of employee orientation are discussed, emphasizing its role in acclimatizing new recruits to the organizational culture. Furthermore, the report delves into different training methods and performance appraisal methods used in organizations. It concludes by underscoring the importance of these HRM functions in ensuring effective employee management and organizational success. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and study tools to enhance their understanding of HRM concepts.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Job Description vs. Job Specification........................................................................................4
3.0 Recruitment Methods.................................................................................................................5
4.0 Interview Questions...................................................................................................................6
5.0 Significance of Orientation and its Process...............................................................................8
6.0 Training Methods.....................................................................................................................10
7.0 Performance Appraisal Methods.............................................................................................12
8.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

1.0 Introduction
Recruitment is considered to be one of the most crucial and success-critical aspects of human
resource management (Kurtz and William, 2017). The task of recruitment and the process
involved therein consists of consideration of several facts that are may be viewed to be both
external and internal to the business and its operations (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). The
instant report deals with the various aspects of the recruitment process in the organizational
context.
At the very beginning of the study, the report provides a brief overview of the job description
and job specification followed by the different methods of recruitment. While doing so, the
researcher provides the examples for the scenario. In the subsequent part of the study, the report
shows some example questions (both general and specific) that may be asked in an interview. In
this context, three specific scenarios have been assumed and specific technical, questions have
been developed accordingly. In the next part of the report, the researcher talks about the different
training methods post recruitment. In addition, the report also delves into the types of
performance apprise methods and finally wraps up the discussion by way of ending note.

2.0 Job Description vs. Job Specification
Job Description (JD) refers to the document that specifies the essential requirements of a job
whereas Job Specification (JS) defines the least qualification required for a job (Kurtz and
William, 2017). JD lists down job title, roles, responsibilities, duties, tasks (Brewster and
Hegewisch, 2017). On the other hand, JS specifies the prospective employees’ educational
qualification, experience, skills, and abilities. Preparation of JS is based on JD. Sometimes, JD is
considered to be a description of the jobs, whereas, the JS may be conceived to be the description
of job holders (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017).
Example: JD for the post of Accounts Manager will consist of the roles and responsibilities of
the person in the company. The person should be responsible for the maintenance of books of
accounts and finalize the same. The person will also do the bank reconciliation. The person will
coordinate with external auditor during the audit. On the other hand, JS for the post will contain
that the person should at least be a Chartered Accountant having 5 years post qualification
experience. Also, working knowledge of SAP is desirable.

3.0 Recruitment Methods
There are two primary types of recruitment methods. One is internal and one is external.
Internal sources mean that the recruitment of the candidate will be performed from the existing
employee only. In other words, any vacancy may be fulfilled by recruiting people from the
existing employee base of the company (Heaslip, et al,. 2016). In various ways, internal
recruiting may happen. Promotion is a process in which the vacancy of a post is fulfilled from
within the organization. Also, the inter-departmental transfer is a method by which one
department's vacancy may be fulfilled by taking employees from another department (Brewster
and Hegewisch, 2017). There are certain benefits of such method. The employees are already
associated with organizational and hence, there is no separate need for training on organizational
culture. Also, the efficiency of the communication also increases. However, it has also to be
noted that if the promoted employee is not innovative, the basic purpose of promoting the person
will be deviated. In short, internal sourcing adversely affects the innovation within the
workplace.
On the other hand, external recruiting means formal recruitment in which the candidates are
taken from outside the business. Walk in interview, campus recruitment, job advertisement are
some of the examples of external recruitment (Cristia and Aracena, 2017). In his context, it may
be noted that external recruitment is the primary and most commonly used way of recruitment.
Bulk recruitment generally happens by taking candidates from outside. In terms of numbers and
volumes, external recruitment occupies a higher place than internal recruitment in recruitment
hierarchy. Moreover, it may also be noted that external recruitment is costly and time taking
affair (Kurtz and William, 2017). However, the primary advantage of external recruitment is that

the process helps the business to collect number of prospective employees for interview and
select and sort them in order to assess their respective quality and potential.
A position of accounts manager may be fulfilled by way of internal recruitment. The reason is
the post is of responsibilities and the HR team will need a candidate who is already aware of the
company’s culture and internal control system. In addition, the understanding of the business is
needed for the post and internally recruited candidate will be best fitted for the same (Bodin,
Schmidt, Lemle, Roper, Goldberg, Hill, Perry-Parrish, Williams, Kuemmel, and Siegel, 2017).
On the other hand, a technical staff may be recruited from external sources as the position does
not demand any specific requirement of understanding of organizational culture and any external
candidate may be trained for the given purpose after recruiting (Kurtz and William, 2017).
4.0 Interview Questions
Development of interview question is critical activity in human resource management and the
questions are designed in such a way that the same help the HR manager to evaluate the
competence of the probable candidates (Su and Yang, 2015). Here are some of the general and
specific questions that may be asked to the following candidates.
General Questions:
 Tell me something about yourself?
 Why do you want to join our company?
 Why should we recruit you?
 What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?
 Why did you leave your previous job?

Specific Questions:
SPA Receptionist:
 How will you welcome the customers?
 If there is any complain call, how will you deal with it?
 How will you handle the misbehavior of a customer?
 If there is a sign of security breach with someone trying to forcefully enter into the SPA
room, what will you do?
 How will you handle the record-keeping maintain the books of accounts to ensure that the
routine operations are documented appropriately?
Massage Therapist:
 What do you know about Thai SPA?
 How will you differentiate between a sandwich SPA and whole body SPA?
 If the customer complains about your previous service, how will you react?
 If there is any disagreement between you and customer regarding the service provision,
what will you do?
 How will you define the medication need in SPA therapy?
SPA Manager:
 How do you perceive the growth of SPA industry in the country?
 What do think as the biggest challenge of the SPA industry today?
 How will you deal with delinquent customers?

 If there is any complaint about your staff by the customers, how will you deal with the
same?
 How will you measure the success of the SPA in your reporting framework?
From the questions above, it may be noted that such interview questions help the candidates to
bring out the best potential within them. Since the questions are open ended and explanatory, the
candidates get sufficient time and scope for thinking and developing own ideas. Based on the
same, he or she may present own self to the interviewer and market own capabilities (Babu and
Reddy, 2018).

5.0 Significance of Orientation and its Process
Orientation training may be defined as the process of getting the newly recruited candidates
acclimatized with the organizational culture and operational aspects. A successful orientation
programme involves a systematic introduction to the job the employees are hired for with an
overview of the organization. It may be stated that the orientation training, entails primarily few
types of information. Firstly, the objective of the programme is to provide the business overview
in terms of operations, scope, history and corporate goals and objectives. In addition, the
programme also presents the routine work culture of the firm and detailed presentation of the job
which the new joiners will be required to perform. Orientation is critical for both the business as
well as the new employees. Employees get motivation and feel involved and assimilated with
organizational culture. On the other hand, the management may find it easier to get the job done
by those newly joined motivated employees. Attrition rate lowers down and chance of
overcoming reality shock reduces substantially.
There are various types of orientation training like formal and informal; individual and
collective; serial or disjunctive. Informal and disjunctive programme helps the business to
develop innovative and inventive employees. On the other hand, the formal and serially
conducted orientation training directs the employees to follow the customs and traditions of the
business and its organizational culture.
The process of orientation has is multi faceted and may include the formal classroom training, on
the job (OJT) training and also the guidance program. Orientation programs help the new
candidates to know about the work force and workplace in more details by way of socializing
with the existing team. A structured orientation training should include the focus on the brief

history of the business and its corporate goals and objectives (Babu and Rao, 2018). In addition,
the operational layout of the entire work should be made visible to them in terms of location of
the canteen, washroom, office supplies, server room, kitchen etc. The training will also involve
the introduction to all the corporate policies including the HR policies (dress code policy; leave
policy, safety issues etc.). The training should also include the review of pay structure and
appraisal process. If the organization is technical secured by way of ID, password, login details
etc, then the same must be set up for the new joiners.
The orientation training for an accounts manager who is recruited through walk in interview, for
example, will require a general introduction to the business comprising of the points discussed
above. In addition, the accounts manager will be required to go through the accounting module
of SAP which is being run and used by the organization. Also, the financial statements and
annual report of the past few years may be given to the candidate for quick perusal and overview.
On the other hand, a technical staff at information technology department may not be same as
that of the accounts manager. Rather, the overview of IT security systems and controls are
something which the candidate should be interested about. The server rooms and its security
policies, security checkpoints, system configuration, computers’ and laptops’ servicing policies
will be introduced to the new joiners (Mishra and Shekhar, 2018).

6.0 Training Methods
Post joining training is one of the key responsibilities of an HR manager. Such training is
important for both candidates and the organizations as the candidates get an operational
overview of the business (Pillai and Abraham, 2016). It has been noted that induction training
provides the newly recruited candidates a motivation to work for the business. It acts as a morale
boost for them. It is very important to get the candidates acquainted bout the organizational
culture in which they are going o work and hence the training is regarded to be a crucial step on
recruitment process (OCA, 2018).
With reference to the given case, it may be stated that the induction training may vary widely and
at the organizational level. Since different organizations have different cultures, accordingly the
training may lead to different forms and shapes. However, the training may vary at resource level
also. For example, an externally recruited accounts manager may be provided with training in the
given format:
Day Training
Day 1 Organizational overview: basic area of operations, corporate goals objectives,
vision and mission statement
Day 2 Office introduction: floor layout, the location of the kitchen, washroom, canteen,
server room, office supplies, stores, entry, exit points including fire exit
Day 3 Staff introduction: departments, branches, staffs, colleagues, management
hierarchy, reporting structure
Day 4 Policies reviews: working hours, lunch break, other breaks, dress code, safety

measures, security measures, behavioral expectations
Day 5 Appraisal and Pay Structure: Appraisal cycle, performance measurement, bonus,
overtime, reimbursable benefits, fringe benefits, facilities
Day 6 Technology and Equipment: login set up, User ID, password set up, get a pass,
security pass, access card
Day 7 Technical Training: Financial reporting, annual report, financial statements, audit
and auditor, SAP modules, accounting issues, and complexities
From the training schedule, it is identified that the training is generic except for the Day 7 where
the specific training is imparted to the accounts manager. However, for a technical staff involved
in the IT department, may also need to go through the entire training except for the last day.
Therefore, for him, the training schedule remains almost the same as before except for Day 7
which may be reproduced herein.
Day Training
Day 7 Technical Training: Introduction to IT system of the organization, security, and
safety issues related to technology, server room, database security, PC set ups,
login features etc.