Recruitment and Selection: Receptionist Case Study at G. Maritime Club

This report presents a case study focused on the recruitment and selection of a receptionist for the Greenwich Maritime Club. It begins with a detailed job description, outlining the receptionist's responsibilities, including customer service, administrative tasks, and communication. The report then p...Read More

A Case Study

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
1. Job description at Greenwich Maritime Club for the post of receptionist...................................3
2. Personal Specifications................................................................................................................4
3. Interview Questions and Ideal Answers.......................................................................................6
4. Alternative/additional Selection Methods....................................................................................7
5) Induction Plan Each new member of staff...................................................................................8
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Employees are considered as one of the most important resources of any business
organization. Therefore, it is very necessary for all the companies and organisations to have an
effective recruitment and selection process. This helps in ensuring that capable candidates must be
recruited to a particular post (Ferner, Edwards and Tempel, 2012). There are many different
variables that are needed to consider during the recruitment and selection process. Role and
responsibility for enlisting and selecting candidates are predominantly handled by the organization's
Human Resource (HR) department. Although in many organisations, it is noticed that head of
functional department is involved to maintain and ensure that technical considerations are examined
during the recruitment and selection process.
Organisation sometime faces problem of deciding whether it is desirable to recruit in
intrinsic or extrinsic manner after considering advantages and disadvantages of both the approaches.
Certain legal considerations are designed by all the organizations which are strictly followed during
the process of selecting candidates for a particular job position (Aguzzoli and Geary, 2014).
This report will provide a brief study about job description, personal specification and
different interview questions which are asked during an interview process. It will also present an
analytical assessment of best practices used in recruitment and selection process. Beginning with
job and interpersonal skills, the report will conclude with the final selection process.
1. Job description at Greenwich Maritime Club for the post of receptionist
Job description
Title: Receptionist
Reports To: The HR Manager/ Line Manager.
Position summary: A receptionist is expected to be cordial, timely, polite and gracious towards
the different types of customers who are arrived in the Greenwich Maritime Club. The
receptionist is required to coordinate and manage the entire significant tasks which are confined
to his/her area of social control in order to provide best quality services to the customers
(Valverde, 2013). He/she should be able to furnish all the assistance related to assistant, clerical
and administrative matters in order to provide services in an efficacious way. The receptionist
should be able to communicate properly in English language to understand and solve the queries
of all the customers (Iseke and Schneider, 2012).

Duties and responsibilities
 Greenwich Maritime Club requires a candidate who is capable enough of being familiar
with the special promotions and offers which are presented by Greenwich Maritime Club,
and later on, conveying the same information to the customers as well (Allen, 2016).
 Selected candidate should be efficient to encourage and boost all the services in different
department of Greenwich Maritime Club so that sales and demand of the club can be
enhanced (Abowd and Stinson, 2013).
 It is very necessary for an individual to possess a specific quality of ensuring all the
registered candidates in a club with their respective deposits (Belbin, 2012).
 He or she should be capable enough of maintaining and organizing different types of
health activities with the help of higher authorities.
 He or she must be able to maintain a diary for recording appointments and meetings on
the daily basis. Diary can be maintained either electronically or manually (Ewen, Wihler
and Ferris, 2013).
 Candidate is supposed to control and direct all the different types of important inventories
received to the reception area (Gergen and Davis, 2012).
 He or she is responsible to monitor the entry of all the users of health club and create
awareness about the security of club.
 He/She should answer to all the telephonic calls and direct calls to the respective
authorities (Barrick, Dustin and Swider, 2012).
 Selected candidate should be capable enough of ensuring and recording all the details of
staff members moving out of the organisation during the working hours.
2. Personal Specifications
Personal specifications and attributes
Core competencies of the receptionist.
 Should be able to provide complete attention and focus on customers who are visiting the
Greenwich Maritime Club (Singh and Holt, 2013).
 Receptionist should maintain a friendly nature and attitude with all the staff members and
customers.
 He/She should able to effectively understand different organisational processes and

systems in order to provide the best quality services to its clients (Doody and Noonan,
2013).
 Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written are compulsory to handle and
greet the individuals arriving in Greenwich Maritime Club. Receptionist should have the ability to work even if no supervision is provided for a
particular task (Ewen, Wihler and Ferris, 2013).
Experience
 He/she should be experienced in welcoming all the visitors at Greenwich Maritime Club in
a very friendly and affectionate manner.
 Should be skilled enough to work on switchboard system to maintain and coordinate high
volume of telephonic calls during the peak hours of duty (Ferner, Edwards and Tempel,
2012).
 Candidate must be able to provide clerical, administrative and assistant duties also apart
from a receptionist duty.
 A good standard of personality representation is very important for a receptionist (Iseke
and Schneider, 2012). Selected individual should possess the ability to promote a positive and optimistic image
of Greenwich Maritime Club in front of all the customers (Singh and Holt, 2013).
Special knowledge and skills
 Candidate must be equipped with basic computer skills which are required for using
computer languages and different programming.
 Efficient and fluent communication skill is required to solve the queries of customers and
to report it to the senior management level (Iseke and Schneider, 2012).
 Should be able to work independently without any supervision or guidance.
 He/She should possess knowledge about MS-Word, MS-Excel, Spreadsheets, MS-Outlook
and MS-Office. A receptionist should be excellent in managing time according to different tasks assigned
to him or her (Singh and Holt, 2013).
Additional job requirements
 To be able to work with flexibility even if environment and working conditions of the
organisation change (Ewen, Wihler and Ferris, 2013).

 He/She should develop interest in health and leisure industries so that individual performs
the duty with full willingness.
3. Interview Questions and Ideal Answers.
For all the job interviews, the process of interview questions and answers plays a very vital
role. Candidates are required to address all the typical and unexpected questions in an effective
manner for the process of selection (Singh and Holt, 2013). Certain interview questions and their
ideal answers have been discussed below.
Q1 Do you have any past experience as a receptionist or other work related experience in different
organisation?
A1 Candidate is expected to explain his/her previous job as a receptionist. Name of the
organization, time span of work, major and minor responsibilities, main role as receptionist etc.
should also be included in the description (Ewen, Wihler and Ferris, 2013). If, candidate does not
have any previous work experience then he/she should explain any customer service role performed
to highlight the important skills and abilities.
Q2 What were your primary roles and responsibilities?
A2 Individual should include a detailed description of main roles and responsibilities such as daily
tasks and duties (Ferner, Edwards and Tempel, 2012).
Q3 What is your criteria for managing and organising work schedule?
A3 As a receptionist, candidate should be able to schedule the work according to the number of
customers and visitors in the organisation. Person is required to discuss the willingness and
flexibility for performing different tasks in order to reduce the work load on every individual
(Ewen, Wihler and Ferris, 2013).
Q4 How many people did you interact on the daily basis?
A4 Individual who is facing the interview process should have good knowledge about the number
of customers with whom he/she interacted during an average day (Iseke and Schneider, 2012).
Candidate is also supposed to mention in detail if any records of meeting were maintained.
Q5 Did you follow any security protocols?
A5 A candidate is required to explain what all protocols were used in the previous job. It can be
checking ID card of the workers, noting down details of visitors and customers when they login or
logout the building etc.

4. Alternative/additional Selection Methods
Apart from the process of interview, there are many other criteria for selecting candidates for
different job purpose (Singh and Holt, 2013). Generally, two types of assessment criteria have been
developed to select individuals for job in business organizations. These two methods are discussed
below.
1. Knowledge Skills and Abilities (KSAs) based selection method: This method includes
different types of tests which are required to examine individual’s knowledge, interpersonal skills
and abilities to perform a particular job. Various KSAs based tests include cognitive test, job
knowledge test, personality test, integrity examination, structures interview assessment and physical
fitness test (Ferner, Edwards and Tempel, 2012). Cognitive ability test: This assessment is helpful in testing the mental ability of candidate. Job Knowledge test: It helps in determining the critical knowledge possessed by an
individual to perform a job in an effective manner. Personality test: Personality test is important to assess the traits and different attributes
required for subsequent job.
2. Task based selection method: Task based assessment involves various tests such as situation
judgement test, work sample test, assessment centre and physical ability test.
Situation judgement test: This assessment consist of different situations which are provided to
a candidate which they can encounter during job (Iseke and Schneider, 2012). Depending upon the
design and format of test, candidate is allowed to choose the most effective or least effective
method to handle the given situation.
Work sample test: It includes tasks or activities which an employee will face when he/ she is
selected for a particular job profile
Assessment centres: An assessment center is a type of job that typically focuses on
assessing candidates for the high managerial and supervisory level (Ewen, Wihler and Ferris, 2013).
5) Induction Plan for each new member of staff
Topics to be discussed Indications of the topic.
Introduction to New work and work area
Person Responsible: Line Manager.
1. Primary vision, short and long term
objectives and mission of the work area
will be discussed. All the key and
operational areas related to job will be
addressed in this session (Guidelines for
induction of employees, 2016).

Introduction to other members of the staff
Person Responsible: Line Manager.
Thorough analysis of organisational chart will
be done in this induction plan. All the roles and
responsibilities of staff members will be
discussed in general terms.
Terms and Conditions
Person Responsible: Line Manager.
All the designed terms and conditions related to
the organisations will be discussed in this
session so that goals, objectives and
expectations are fulfilled (Ferner, Edwards and
Tempel, 2012). Probation performance and
appraisal criteria will also be checked.
Culture of the Office
Person Responsible: Line Manager.
For new candidates, it is very important to make
them aware of local arrangements such as hours
of working, holiday and leave requests, sickness
procedures, dress code and lunch timings (What
to expect in an interview?, 2016).
It will also include procedures of using mail
systems, internet, telephone and transportation
(Iseke and Schneider, 2012).
Job Specific Training and Development
Nominee
Role specification and development in particular
job will be discussed which include individual
skills and core duties of the candidate. All the
staff members should be very clear with their
roles and responsibilities assigned to them.
For the new staff members, probation policy will
apply form the date of joining (Ewen, Wihler
and Ferris, 2013).
CONCLUSION
This report has been included current recommended best practices in respect of recruitment
and selection process. It has been illustrated the quality and resource intensive nature of the process
and also focussed on the significance of prior planning as well as preparation to ensure that the most
suitable candidates are shortlisted for the role who have necessary skills and attributes. The report
also includes number of alternative methods for actually selecting a candidate for the job role and

selecting of one of the best methods is based on the specifics of job itself and also related to human
capital requirements of the organisation. It also explored an induction plan which is designed to
address different topics for the new staff members of Greenwich Maritime Club.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Aguzzoli, R. and Geary, J., 2014. An ‘emerging challenge’: The employment practices of a
Brazilian multinational company in Canada. Human Relations. 67(5). pp.587-609.
Allen, S., 2016. The job application process. How to Develop Your Healthcare Career: A Guide to
Employability and Professional Development. p.130.
Barrick, M. R., Dustin, S. L. and Swider, B.W., 2012. Candidate characteristics driving initial
impressions during rapport building: Implications for employment interview validity. Journal
of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 85(2). pp.330-352.
Belbin, R. M., 2012. Team roles at work. Routledge.
Doody, O. and Noonan, M., 2013. Preparing and conducting interviews to collect data. Nurse
Researcher. 20(5). pp.28-32.
Ewen, C., Wihler, A. and Ferris, G. R., 2013. Further specification of the leader political skill–
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Ferner, A., Edwards, T. and Tempel, A., 2012. Power, institutions and the cross-national transfer of
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Fry, R., 2012. 101 great answers to the toughest interview questions. Open Road Media.
Gergen, K. J. and Davis, K. E. 2012. The social construction of the person. Springer Science &
Business Media.
Iseke, A. and Schneider, M., 2012. Transfer of Employment Practices, Varieties of Capitalism and
National Employment Systems. A Review. Industrielle Beziehungen/The German Journal of
Industrial Relations. pp.236-252.
Singh, V. and Holt, L., 2013. Learning and best practices for learning in open-source software
communities. Computers & Education. 63. pp.98-108.
Valverde, M., 2013. Call centres' employment practices in global value networks: A view from
Argentina as a receiving economy. Universitat Rovira i Virgili.
Online
Guidelines for induction of employees. 2016. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/hr/handbook/recruitment/induction_new_employees/
guidelines_induction.html>. [Accessed on 8th March 2016].
What to expect in an interview? 2016. [Online] Available through:
<http://www.slideshare.net/receptionistcareer/128-receptionist-interview-questions-and-
answers-pdf>. [Accessed on 8th March 2016].