Research Project: Recruitment and Selection at Transport for London

This research project analyzes the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process at Transport for London (TfL). The study outlines the research specification, factors influencing project selection, and a critical literature review on the topic. It investigates the tools and techniques used by TfL, including both internal and external recruitment sources, and assesses employee satisfaction with the process. The report employs a descriptive research design, collecting data through questionnaires and secondary sources like journals and articles. Data analysis utilizes qualitative and quantitative methods, including thematic analysis and random sampling. Key findings reveal that TfL maintains effective employee retention, primarily uses external recruitment sources, and employees generally express satisfaction with the recruitment and selection process. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing these processes within TfL.

RESEARCH
PROJECT

Table of Contents
RESEARCH PROJECT ..................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Research project outline specification....................................................................................1
Factors contributing in research project selection..................................................................1
Critical literature review.........................................................................................................2
Research project specification ...............................................................................................6
Plan and procedure for research specification........................................................................6
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................7
Matching the resources...........................................................................................................7
Research investigation as per agreed specification and procedures.......................................7
Data collection analysis..........................................................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
Research evaluation technique.............................................................................................11
Data interpretation and analysis of result.............................................................................11
Recommendations and justification ....................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18
Importance of Effective Recruitment & Selection. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-effective-recruitment-selection-55782.html>.
[Accessed on 21st September 2015]. ............................................................................................18
Illustration Index
Illustration 1: Recruitment and selection process ...........................................................................3
Illustration 2: Sources of recruitment..............................................................................................4
Illustration 3: Role of recruitment and selection process.................................................................5

TASK 1
To analyse the effectiveness of recruitment and selection process in TfL
Research project outline specification
Employing right person in an enterprise is a major challenge for every business unit.
Employees strengthen the internal business environment and helps in making it competent within
the market (Branine, 2008). Present competition in global market has imposed high risk in
retaining skilled staff for managing organisational operations. Recruitment is the process of
attracting maximum competent applicants for current vacancies within an entity. Selection is the
process which deals with choosing the best individual for the current job post. Transport for
London (TfL) is governed by central authority and deals with most facet of transportation system
in Greater London, England (Catano and et.al., 2009).
Major role of the company is to manage transport services across London. This statutory
organisation was established in the year 2000 and is successfully operating services then on. It
has employed more than 28000 people within the organisation. It operates is a wide range of
transportation activities which deals in different modes such as underground railways, London
rails, water transport etc (Chien and Chen, 2008). They help in developing business operations
and managing its activities efficiently to helps the residents with effective transportation
services. Current study will focus on developing an in-depth study about role of recruitment and
selection for successive business growth. It will analyse various tools and techniques that the
organisation uses in order to develop effective recruitment and selection of employees. Research
objectives for the study are:
 To examine role of recruitment and selection in attaining right person for right job in TfL
 To identify tools and techniques used for recruitment and selection process in TfL
 To recommend different methods for enhancing recruitment and selection process for
TfL
Factors contributing in research project selection
Transportation is a basic need of every individual. It is significantly enhancing its
operations within various countries in different parts of the world. Analysing recruitment and
selection process helps in evaluating its significance in success of business operations. Present
research focuses on analysing various tools and techniques used by TfL in developing its
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business operations. This helps in developing a deep insight about process of recruitment and
selection used by the organization. Research topic will analyse effective measures adopted by
the company in order to attain set organizational objectives within this competitive market.
Research can be used for further research by various researchers interested in the topic. It will
help in enhancing academic knowledge about the topic as well. This will also help in attracting
large number of applicants towards the entity in order to enhance changes of employment within
the industry. Exploratory research measures will helps in seeking new prospects for research to
attain research objectives.
Critical literature review
Overview
Compton and et.al., 2009 states that recruitment and selection process is critically
significant for the effectiveness of an organization. This helps a business in acquiring competent
and skilled employees for enhancing overall organizational performance (Compton and et.al.,
2009). According to Ordanini and Silvestri, 2008 recruitments and selection process helps a
business unit in filling the gap of employee requirement with actual availability of the staff while
managing internal cost of business (Ordanini and Silvestri, 2008). Cot of recruiting staff of
replacing employee is a very costly measures for an organization thus companies focuses on
choosing an effective measures of finding right person for right job (Keep and James, 2010).
This help in developing a strong and committed team of employees while maintaining employee
retention power for the business unit.
Tools and techniques for recruitment and selection
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Van den Brink, 2010 stated that recruitment and selection process is an integral and most
crucial part of human resource management. This helps a business in maintaining the internal
cost while enhancing organizational productivity by attracting talented applicants for vacancies
within company and selecting right person for the same (Van den Brink, 2010). Business units
uses different tools and technique to perform overall process and attain internal objecting of the
company. In words of Gatewood, Feild and Barrick, 2010 recruitment is a process of attracting,
selecting and appointing the most suitable candidate for job within an organization while
selection is the process of choosing right person for right job from pool of different candidates
who applied (Gatewood, Feild and Barrick, 2010). TfL adopts an effective measures to manage
and maintain employees within the organization and enhancing their productivity of the
organization and providing quality of services to the residents of London and travellers as well.
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Il
lustration 1: Recruitment and selection process
(Source: Self attempted)

Recruitment uses a range of tools and techniques which helps the company in attaining
the set objective f business. These tools and techniques range from conventional and time-tested
methods such as newspaper advertisements to fairly recent developments such as social media
networking. According to Kluemper and Rosen, 2009 internal recruitment sources such as
employee referrals, former employees and previous applicants is a cost effective and time saving
method for an organization as it saves the cost of advertisements, job posting and process of
screening as well (Kluemper and Rosen, 2009). However this source limits the pool of talent
thus companies refers this source as per the policies and needs (Kumari, 2012). On contrary to
this Van den Brink, 2010 states that external sources such as employment exchange,
advertisement, campus recruitment, deputation etc. demands high investment in terms of time
and funds but is effective for acquiring innovative and talented team of workers. Hence it is
evident that tools and techniques for recruitment and selection are chosen on the basis of
organizational constraints of time and funds but it is a very significant part of laying the
foundation of internal organizational strength.
Role of recruitment and selection process
4
Illustration 2: Sources of recruitment
(Source:)

Illustration 3: Role of recruitment and selection process
(Source:)
Various researches and theories has contributed in understanding the roles of given
process of recruitment and selection in the success of a business. Recruitment helps in
developing pool of talented and qualified applicants for the company which helps in acquiring
strong and committed team of employees develops a positive organizational culture for the
business It results the companies in gaining a competitive edge within the market. Moreover
Kumari, 2012 contributed to the subject that An effective process of selection helps an
organization in managing a balance between an organisational requirements with skills and
qualifications of applicants thus helping in gaining huge success in competitive market. Hence it
is evident that the process helps company in gaining an edge within the market and creates
required measures for managing organizational activities. TfL has closely examined the same
and has developed a strong process of recruitment and selection (Importance of Effective
Recruitment & Selection. 2015). This has helped the company in creating a strong organizational
culture thus creating an effective measures of providing transportation services to majority of the
population.
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Project specification
Research questions which will help in developing a clear understanding about the topic
and its impact on business operations of TfL are:
 What are the roles of recruitment and selection process in TfL?
 What tools and techniques are adopted by TfL for the process of recruitment and
selection?
Plan and procedure for research specification
In order to conduct this research, descriptive design will be implemented which will help
in gaining in-depth knowledge about strategies used by TfL in analysing the study and achieving
the set objectives. For data collection both primary and secondary sources of data will be used.
Primary data will be collected by developing a questionnaire and asking employees of the
organization to fill the same. For secondary data source the researcher will use various books
journals news articles and old researches to gain in-depth knowledge about the topic. A sample
size of 50 employees will be selected for this purpose. Data analysis will be conducted by using
qualitative and qualitative method and thematic method will be incorporated to attain the set
objectives. Various themes will help in analysing different objectives of TfL thus will help in
achieving the objectives of research.
However, to complete this research, following plan will be followed:
Activity/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Proposal for research
Data mining and research
Objectives finalization
Literature review development
Secondary data collection
Secondary data analysis
Analyzing research approach
Research methodology
Questionnaire formulation
Interview preparation
Conducting interview
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information Gathering
Findings
Data Evaluation
Finalizing other chapters
Findings chapter Drafting
Submission to tutor
Revising the final draft
Printing and binding
Submission
TASK 2
Matching the resources
The study focuses on achieving research aim which entails “To analyse the effectiveness
of recruitment and selection process in TfL”. It focuses on exploring and identifying various
methods used for recruitment and selection within the company. This helps in analysing the
strength of business operations and various factors that helps it in enhancing employee
productivity and retention power within the company. To attain the stated aim following
objectives have been developed:
 To examine role of recruitment and selection in attaining right person for right job in TfL
 To identify tools and techniques used for recruitment and selection process in TfL
 To recommend different methods for enhancing recruitment and selection process for
TfL
The research questions that helped in attaining the research objectives are:
 What are the roles of recruitment and selection process in TfL?
 What tools and techniques are adopted by TfL for the process of recruitment and
selection?
Research investigation as per agreed specification and procedures
Research methodology is a sequential measure that helps the researcher in attaining
research objectives by adopting a structured way for approaching research questions. This
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enhances data relevancy and reliability for research. Research design adopted for the current
study is as follows:
Research philosophy
This is a crucial part of research methodology. It helps the researcher in predicting about
effective strategies which helps in attaining the set objectives of study. Research philosophy
which are commonly used in the process are positivism and interpretivism (Creswell, 2013).
Present research will adopt interpretive approach as this will help in representing in-depth
understanding about various theories and practices adopted by TfL and analyse the impact of the
same on operations of the company.
Research approach
Inductive research approach will be adopted for the given study as this will help the
researcher in seeking specific concepts and measures for recruitments and selection process in
TfL and evaluate the impact of it on overall efficiency of organizational operations and
productivity as well (What is research methodology? definition and meaning. 2015). This
approach will help in making the research flexible and interesting for further reference.
Research type
To achieve the research aim both qualitative and qualitative measures will be implied by
the researcher as this will enable in creating a better understanding about human behaviour in
TfL and create effective analysis of data collection for the same. Qualitative research will help in
developing an in-depth understanding of human behaviour while quantitative measures will help
in representing the collected data efficiently (Forzano, 2011).
Data collection
Data collection methods used for the research will be primary and secondary sources of
data collection. For primary method questionnaire will be used which will help in collecting the
fresh and relevant data for the research. On the other hand secondary research method will
implement various sources such as past researches, books, journals and newspapers articles as
well.
Sampling
This is a very critical and crucial part of the study. Relevance of data and reliability of the
research is highly dependent on this factor. To acquire the effective results random sampling
method will implemented for the study. This will helps researcher in developing unbiased sample
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while providing an equal probability to every unit of the population (Goddard and Melville,
2004).
Sample size
Sample size of the research will be 50 employees of TfL. This will help in developing a
clear and effective research study while considering human behavioural aspects for the
organization.
Data Analysis
Qualitative and quantitative tools of data analysis will be used for the current study.
Qualitative measure will help in analysing human behaviour of the employees within an
organization efficiently while qualitative measure will help in developing authentic and reliable
results for the study.
Research limitation
Limitations of the study are:
 Limited time-frame constraints study due to lack of time and vast scope of research.
 Study has adopted the limited sample size of 50 employees which may result in limited
data and may also create biasness of respondents due to human behavioural constraints.
Data collection analysis
Questionnaire
Personal information
Name:
Age:
Gender: Male Female
Specific information
Your tenure of working with Tfl.
10-15 years
5-10 years
3-5 years
Less that 3 years
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What mode helps you in informing about job vacancy?
Existing employee
Walk in Interview
Friend
Newspaper
Job portal
How was your expirience with recruitment and selection process of Tfl?
Non satisfactory
Below Average
Average
Good
Excellent
Are you satisfied working with TfL?
Yes
No
Working in TfL has helped in developing your skills and attributes.
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly agree
How will you rate the training and development program of TfL?
Non satisfactory
Below Average
Average
Good
10