Guidelines for completing module 3 assessment: Attraction, recruitment and selection plan Task Description: The broad purpose of this assessment item is to develop your capabilities in evidence-based human resource management by developing your capacity to: a) critically evaluate existing HRM policies and procedures to determine how well they intgrate academic theory and research about effective HRM practice. b) develop recommendations for new/ revised HRM policies based on a relevant evidence base of academic theory and academic and/ or practitioner research. The specific purpose of this task is to develop and apply your understanding of effective attraction, recruitment and selection to develop effective and useful HRM policies. To complete this task you will develop an attraction, recruitment and selection policy for Happy Dogs that details how the company should attract, recruit and select potential employees. You will: a) critically analyse the existing Happy Dogs recruitment and selection policy and determine how it should be revised to help the company: a. effectively attract desired target candidates using job analysis, position descriptions, and competitive employee value propositions b. effectively recruit desired target candidates using appropriate recruitment channels and effective job advertisements c. effecively conduct selection interviews so they provide valid and reliable indications of candidate fit with Happy Dogs b) research relevant academic theory and academic and/ or practitioner research to determine the standards and objectives HD should adopt in attracting, recruiting and selecting employees a) present recommendations specifying, for each one: a. the policy position that Happy Dogs should adopt (eg that the company should conduct valid and reliable selection interviews) b. The procedures that should be used to ensure Happy Dogs fulfils its policy objectives (eg how selection interviews should be conducted to ensure they are valid and reliable ) c. The evidence/ sources on which you have based your recommendations Guidance on completing the task: Your plan needs to detail your recommendations as to how Happy Dogs should change its recruitment and selection activities to attract, recruit and select potential employees for the Dog Walker position. Consequently it will have four main sections: Introduction (100 words max) This section should provide an overview of the purpose, scope and structure of your report. Recommendations for attracting desired candidates (600 words approx) In this section you should be detailing the goals (policy objectives) and procedures you think Happy Dogs should adopt to help the company effectively attract desired target candidates for the Dog Walker positions using - Job analysis and position descriptions - competitive employee value propositions Recommendations for recruiting desired candidates (600 words approx) In this section you should be detailing the goals (policy objectives) and procedures you think Happy Dogs should adopt to effectively recruit desired target candidates using - appropriate recruitment channels and - effective job advertisements Recommendations for selecting desired candidates (600 words approx) In this section you should be detailing the goals (policy objectives) and procedures you think Happy Dogs should adopt to effecively conduct selection interviews so they provide valid and reliable indications of candidate fit with Happy Dogs. So, in each section, you are recoemmending that the company should be doing these things as they are consistent with the theory and best practice. What you need to explicitly explain is - why they should be doing this / the rationale for changing their current approach - how they need to adapt their current policy to incorporate these goals - any procedures they should incorporate into their HRM practices to ensure they do execute their attraction, recruitment and selection processes in ways that are consistent with theory and best practice Guidelines for developing each section. In each section you must detail your recommendations about the company’s policy objectives for this aspect of its HRM. In other words, state explicitly what the company should be aiming to achieve as ‘good’ HRM, and what it should be doing to parctice ‘good’ HRM. To develop your recommendations you first need to research relevant academic theory and academic and/ or practitioner research to determined what is currently considered ‘good’ HRM in attraction, recruitment and selection and which practices will help achieve that form of ‘good’ HRM. You will then cite these sources in your report as the evidence base for your recommendations. As an illustrative example: Academic theory suggests that organisations should only use selection mechanisms that are valid and reliable (Stone 2014) and research has shown that structured interviews are more reliable than unstructured interviews ( Nankervis, Compton & Baird, 2008). Hence, your policy recommendation might be that Happy Dogs conduct structured selection interviews in which all candidates are asked the same set of pre-defined questions. Your recommendations for procedures might then detail how the company should conduct its interviews to ensure all candiates are asked the same set of pre-defined questions. For example you might recommend that before selection interviews for a position are conducted, all interviewers receive a pre-interview training session in which they review and discuss the interview questions so they all know how to conduct the interview to ensure that candidates are asked the same questions and the interviews are consistent. Enhancing your marks for each section As you will see on the assessment rubric for this task, marks for each section are awarded depending on how specifically you describe and detail - the weaknesses of the company’s current policy and how they weaken its HRM - the HRM theory or research you are using - how following your recommendations will enhance the company’s HRM I have provided two examples below: one which would achieve a PP/CR mark and one which would achieve a DN/ HD mark. Both examples make the same basic points: the difference in quality relates to the differences in detail (and hence demonstrated knowledge/ understanding) in the two answers. Pass/ CR example: The company’s current selection policy states that interviews will be conducted by either Michael or Mary Traynor but use of a single interviewer can result in indivdual biases compromising interview reliability (Wilton, 2011). The company should adopt a policy of conducting all selection interviews with at least two interviewers to minimise interviewer bias and enhance interview reliability (Nankervis, Compton & Baird 2008). DN/ HD example: The company’s current policy that interviews be conducted by a single interviewer increases the risk that perceptual biases such as steroetyping by individual interviewers can compromise selection decisions by resulting in candidates being evaluated inconsistently (Kramar et al 2014). Previous research has found that using multiple interviewers enhances the accuracy of interviewer evaluations of candidates because interviewers are more motivated to attend to applicant information and form evidence-based judgements of applicants when they anticipate having to share their evaluations with other panel members (Mcarthy, Van Idenkinge and Campion 2010). Consequently the company should specficy in its policy that all selection interviews are conducted by at least two interviewers who then share and compare evaluations of candidates after the interviews are conducted.