Reflective Account on Recruitment Process using Rolfe's Model

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This reflective account details a student's experience in a recruitment process.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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LO: 4 - Apply Human Resource Management practices in a work-
related context
Reflective Account
Rolfe’s Reflective Model
The Rolfe’s Reflective Model is an ideal reflective model for reflecting on experience or
action and to use it for self-improvement. It allows me to reflect on three different levels
that allow me to gain a deeper understanding of a situation and thus greater learning
(Lucas, 2012).
Rolfe’s Reflective Model
This seemingly simple model is based on the following three questions
1) What? – This reflection level deals with description of the restaurant. This involves
describing the experience by analysing the singing concert held at the restaurant
directs on own perceptions, aims, and actions (Lucas, 2012).
Source: Rolfe's Reflective Model
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2) So What? – This level deals with knowledge and theory building. It involves self-
feelings, effects of own actions, changes that could make your actions better and
summarising the situation with new understanding (Lucas, 2012).
3) What Next? – This level is reflexive or action oriented. It involves understanding the
implications of the previous two steps, things that one can learn from it and ways in
which it can help in self-improvement (Lucas, 2012).
“Stop and Think” Quote
“Human resources are like natural resources; they're often buried deep. You have to go
looking for them; they're not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the
circumstances where they show themselves.” (Kartikeyan et al., 2018)
― Ken Robinson
Reflection- Quote
My understanding of the above quote is that it compares human resources to natural ones
and goes on to say that the human resources in the restaurants are as precious and similarly
buried or hidden among others. Human Resource manager has to work towards unearthing
by first attracting them to the recruitment process and then identifying and hiring them. It
helped me in understanding the importance of good resources to an organisation and the
importance of an effective recruitment process in identifying and hiring them (Ekwoaba,
2015).
Reflecting on the activity by using the Rolfe’s Reflective Model
Description of the experience- What?
We conducted the recruitment process for the role of a waitress for our restaurant. We got
several responses to the advertisement for the job description of the said role. After sorting
through the CV applications fifteen suitable candidates were shortlisted. They were called
for the interview process (Paterson and Chapman, 2013). We employed the CASE interview
method as a group exercise by asking them to analyse some day-to-day waitressing
situations to explore their verbal and numerical reasoning skills as well as interpersonal
communication skills (Klotz et al., 2013). Four candidates with basic numerical and verbal
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reasoning skills and excellent interpersonal communication and pressure handling skills
were shortlisted for the personal interview (Klotz et al., 2013).
The STAR interview method was applied for the personal interview process while recruiting
to the candidate at little Chef Restaurant. The four components of this interview method
namely Situation, Task, Action, and Result were employed to analyse their response to the
interview questions (Uddin et al., 2012). The questions were designed to assess their
pressure handling aptitude, self-awareness level, sense of judgement, and leadership
potential. I was responsible for designing the entire process and implementing it. The
personal interview was conducted by me and the Restaurant Manager. It was a success and
a waitress was selected while another one was added to our database for future
requirements.
Analysing the Experience – So What? (Paterson and Chapman, 2013)
I designed a job description on the basis of my discussions with the restaurant manager. It
was placed as an advertisement and sent to the recruitment agencies. We got a favourable
response and got ample of CV applications. While going through the application, I was
looking for individuals with work experience, high school diploma, an ability to adapt to a
fast-paced work environment, flexibility in working hours, and the ability to multitask (Klotz
et al., 2013). I based these assumptions on the previous work experience but it may have
been faulty. I think some of the suitable candidates may have been missed due to the
parameters set by me while examining the CV application.
I believe the basic qualities of being an efficient waitress is multitasking, presentation,
interpersonal communication skills, and leadership potential for career advancement. These
qualities cannot be assessed through CV applications. The assumption made by me on the
basis of CV application proved wrong during the interview process. The work experience
doesn’t define the ability of an individual at the beginning levels in restaurants. I have come
to realise that the CV application scrutiny should be focused on eliminating individual that
appear totally unfit for the job (Klotz et al., 2013). The skill levels and temperaments can be
better analysed during the group activity through which a better shortlisting can be done.
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Finally, during the personal interview, my focus was on finding an individual with a pleasant
personality, ability to multitask, basic maths level, excellent presentation and
communication skills and an ability to handle pressure and stress (Uddin et al., 2012).
Sometimes a waitress needs to handle the rush hour with a pleasant smile and exceptional
client handling while multitasking to ensure all the customers at her tables are happy. I
finally got two people with these qualities and selected one while adding the second to our
human resource database for future vacancies.
Results and Learning from the Experience - What Next? (Paterson and Chapman, 2013)
The thing that didn’t feel good to me is that I was unable to connect with a number of
suitable candidates. Another thing was the inability to self-brand in some of the good
candidates. They were unable to differentiate themselves from others while it could have
been small details like changing and improving presentation style that could have helped in
this regard. Another learning was relying solely on CV applications can be disastrous and it
should only be used for basic scrutiny. Also, the group exercise was a good addition for
identifying potential candidates and understanding their skill set before the personal
interview (Ekwoaba, 2015).
Areas of Learning
1) A Job description is critical for attracting suitable candidates so it must be able to
explain the profile efficiently. Communicate with the customer to resolve complaints
or ensure satisfaction. This can also be ensure by customer enjoying their meals and
actions (Ekwoaba, 2015).
2) CASE interview style is effective in the group exercises while the STAR interview style
was better for personal interviews (Uddin et al., 2012). Also, the CV application
scrutiny process should be a basic sorting process and depending on the CV
application for making the choice of potential candidates was inefficient and
ineffective.
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References
Ekwoaba, J.O., Ikeije, U.U. and Ufoma, N., 2015. The Impact of Recruitment and Selection
Criteria on Organizational Performance.
Kartikeyan, V., Nandakumar, R., Kyran, R. and Vishwanath, P., 2018. ‘Human’-Centric Human
Resources A Call To HR to Awaken to its Potential. NHRD Network Journal, 11(3), pp.114-
122.
Klotz, A.C., da Motta Veiga, S.P., Buckley, M.R. and Gavin, M.B., 2013. The role of
trustworthiness in recruitment and selection: A review and guide for future research.
Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(S1), pp.S104-S119.
Lucas, P., 2012, November. Critical reflection. What do we really mean. In 2012 Australian
Collaborative Education Network National Conference (p. 163).
Paterson, C. and Chapman, J., 2013. Enhancing skills of critical reflection to evidence
learning in professional practice. Physical Therapy in Sport, 14(3), pp.133-138.
Uddin, M.I., Tanchi, K.R. and Alam, M.N., 2012. Competency mapping: A tool for hr
excellence. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(5).
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