problems associated in recruitment and selection and how to make the recruitment/selection effective

Problems in recruitment and selection

Their are various problem related to recruitment and selection such as:

1. No weighting of interview questions

2. Poor setting for the interview

3. Insufficient follow-up questions

4. Failure to check with former employers

5. Use of hiring quotas

6. Failure to post openings

7. Tapping successors

8. Vague selection criteria

9. Untrained interviewers

10. Inappropriate questions

11. Failure to provide reasonable accommodation of disabled applicants

12. Failure to notify unsuccessful contenders of the selection decision

13. Failure to provide the new employee with a substantive orientation of the job.

14. Rushed selection process

15. Unclear job requirements

16. Insufficient outreach

17. Recruitment outside of the personnel system

5 tips to conduct an effective interview

A successful interview requires employers’ ability to give suitable questions, listen to applicants’ answers and make them tell the truth about their competence and points of view. It is the background that helps you select the talented employees. These following techniques can help you improve interview skills.

1. Make a suitable appointment

As an interviewer, you should always be on time when having an appointment with candidates, especially the ones applying superior positions. Being chronological expresses recruiters’ professionalism and good images of companies. You should put the interview appointment into your working schedule and consider it an important meeting with customers. Be sure that you will give the best interview environment to candidates: a neat desk, telephone in vibration or off mode, quiet room and tell other people that you do not want to be disturbed.

2. Encourage candidates to answer interview questions

Ask open and friendly questions to help candidates feel free and well answer all questions in the interview. You can ask about their working experience; for example: “Please tell me about one of your current working days. What makes you like it? What makes you dislike it?” This question makes candidates feel free to share their information. That is the best beginning for an effective interview.

3. Listening more than speaking

If you spend more than 20 minutes of an interview to speak, candidates do not have much time to talk about them. The aim of an interview is to know clearly about candidates through listening to them. So you should spend time to listen as much as possible.

4. Ask open questions

Avoid asking Yes/No questions. Ask open questions to encourage candidates to talk more about their current job or themselves instead. Questions like “Why do you think it is right?” or “How did you do it?” will help you know more clearly about candidates.

5. Ask questions before describing the coming job

Avoid describing the coming job too much before the interview. An intelligent candidate can take full advantage of the description to outline answers that he thinks you want to hear. By asking a lot of questions before describing the job, you can know the most reliable information about candidates.

Human Resource Planning Process Or Steps Of HR Planning

Human Resource Planning Process Or Steps Of HR Planning

Human resource planning is a process through which the company anticipates future business and environmental forces. Human resources planning assess the manpower requirement for future period of time. It attempts to provide sufficient manpower required to perform organizational activities. HR planning is a continuous process which starts with identification of HRobjectives, move through analysis of manpower resources and ends atappraisal of HR planning. Following are the major steps involved in human resource planning:

1. Assessing Human Resources

The assessment of HR begins with environmental analysis, under which the external (PEST) and internal (objectives, resources and structure) are analyzed to assess the currently available HR inventory level. After the analysis of external and internal forces of the organization, it will be easier for HR manager to find out the internal strengths as well as weakness of the organization in one hand and opportunities and threats on the other. Moreover, it includes an inventory of the workers and skills already available within the organization and a comprehensive job analysis.

2. Demand Forecasting

HR forecasting is the process of estimating demand for and supply of HR in an organization. Demand forecasting is a process of determining future needs for HR in terms of quantity and quality. It is done to meet the future personnel requirements of the organization to achieve the desired level of output. Future human resource need can be estimated with the help of the organization's current human resource situation and analysis of organizational plans an procedures. It will be necessary to perform a year-by-year analysis for every significant level and type.

3. Supply Forecasting

Supply is another side of human resource assessment. It is concerned with the estimation of supply of manpower given the analysis of current resource and future availability of human resource in the organization. It estimates the future sources of HR that are likely to be available from within an outside the organization. Internal source includes promotion, transfer, job enlargement and enrichment, whereas external source includes recruitment of fresh candidates who are capable of performing well in the organization.

4. Matching Demand And Supply

It is another step of human resource planning. It is concerned with bringing the forecast of future demand and supply of HR.The matching process refers to bring demand and supply in an equilibrium position so that shortages and over staffing position will be solved. In case of shortages an organization has to hire more required number of employees. Conversely, in the case of over staffing it has to reduce the level of existing employment. Hence, it is concluded that this matching process gives knowledge about requirements and sources of HR.

5. Action Plan

It is the last phase of human resource planning which is concerned with surplus and shortages of human resource. Under it, the HR plan is executed through the designation of different HR activities. The major activities which are required to execute the HR plan are recruitment, selection, placement, training and development, socialization etc. Finally, this step is followed by control and evaluation of performance of HR to check whether the HR planning matches the HR objectives and policies. This action plan should be updated according to change in time ans conditions

difference between human resoure management and personnel management

Personnel Management & HRM—Distinction

Personnel Management	Human Resource Management
1. It is concerned with managing people at work.	It is concerned with the management of employees’ skills, knowledge, abilities, talents, aptitudes, creative abilities etc.

2. Employees are treated like other components such as machinery, equipment etc.	Employees are treated as a resource and an asset.
3. Employee is treated as an economic man (i.e., he works for money only)	Employee is treated as an economic, social and psychological man.
4. Employees are treated as a cost centre- wages paid are treated as cost of labour.	Employees are treated as a profit centre i.e., amount invested in human resources brings more revenues.
5. It is considered only as an auxiliary or subsidiary function.	It is considered as a strategic management function.

segmentation targeting positioning

mcom marketing segmentation, positioning

market segmentation, targeting and positioning

RM MCOM MEASUREMENT AND SCALING

RM MCOM COMPARATIVE AND NON-COMPARATIVE TECHNIQUES

RM MCOM comparative & non comaprative techniques

Comparative and Non-Comparative from u068692

RM MCOM Comparative Scaling Techniques for Survey Research

Comparative Scaling Techniques for Survey Research

Scaling emerged from the social sciences in an attempt to measure or order attributes with respect to quantitative attributes or traits.  Scaling provides a mechanism for measuring abstract concepts.  A comparative scale is an ordinal or rank order scale that can also be referred to as a nonmetric scale.  Respondents evaluate two or more objects at one time and objects are directly compared with one another as part of the measuring process.  For example you could ask someone if they prefer listening to MP3s through a Zune or an iPod. You could take it a step further and add some other MP3 player brands to the comparison.  MP3 players would be scaled relative to each other and the scale position of any one player would depend on the the scale position of the remaining players.  Because they are being compared differences such as who has the click wheel are effectively forced.  Where this is limiting is evident when you find no standard of comparison outside the objects being compared. No generalizations are made outside of these objects.  Often used when physical characteristics of objects are being compared.

Guttman Scaling

This can also be referred to as a cumulative scoring or scalogram analysis.  The intent of this survey is that the respondent will agree to a point and their score is measured to the point where they stop agreeing.  For this reason questions are often formatted in dichotomous yes or no responses.  The survey may start out with a question that is easy to agree with and then get increasingly sensitive to the point where the respondent starts to disagree.  You may start out with a question that asks if you like music at which point you mark yes.   Four questions later it may ask if you like music without a soul and which is produced by shady record labels only out to make money at which point you may say no. If you agreed with the first 5 questions and then started disagreeing you would be rated a 5.  The total of questions you agreed to would be added up and your final score would say something about your attitude toward music.

Rasch Scaling

This probabilistic model provides a theoretical basis for obtaining interval level measurements based on counts from observations such as total scores on assessments. This analyzes individual differences in response tendencies as well as an item’s discrimination and difficulty.  It measures how respondents interact with items and then infers differences between items from responses to obtain scale values.  This model is typically used analyze data from assessments and to measure abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.

Rank-Order Scaling

This gives the respondent a set of items and then asks the respondent to put those items in some kind of order. The “order” could be something like preference, liking, importance, effectiveness, etc.  This can be a simple ordinal structure such as A is higher than B or be done by relative position (give each letter a numerical value as in A is 10 and B is 7).   You could present five items and ask the respondent to order each one A-E in order of preference.  In Rank-Order scaling only (n-1) decisions need to be made.

Constant Sum Scaling

With this ordinal level technique respondents are given a constant sum of units such as points, money, or credits and then asked to allocate them to various items.   For example,  you could ask a respondent to reflect on the importance of features of a product and then give them 100 points to allocate to each feature of the product based on that.   If a feature is not important then the respondent can assign it zero.   If one feature is twice as important as another then they can assign it twice as much.   When they are done all the points should add up to 100.

Paired Comparison Scale

This is an ordinal level technique where a respondent is presented with two items at a time and asked to choose one.   This is the most widely used comparison scale technique.   If you take n brands then [n (n-1)/2] paired comparisons are required.  A classic example of when paired comparison is used is during taste tests.  For example you could have a taste test in which you have someone try both Coke and Pepsi and then ask them which one they prefer.

Bogardus Social Distance Scale

This is a cumulative score that is a variant of the Guttman scale, agreement with any item implies agreement with the preceding items. This scale is used to measure how close or distant people feel toward other people.  Social distance is a concern when it comes to issues related to racial integration or other forms of equality.  This is applicable to team formation in the work place for example.  Some people accept other people easily and use trustworthiness as the basis of their relationship with other people.  Other people do not accept people who are not like them and tend to keep those that are not like them at arms length.

Q-Sort Scaling

This is a rank order procedure where respondents are asked to sort a given number of items or statements and classify them into a predetermined number of sets (usually 11) according to some criterion such as preference, attitude, or behavioral intent.  Using cards that note an item to be ranked is the most popular and simplest method to use in the sorting process.  In order to increase statistical reliability at least 60 cards should be used and no more than 140.  This is good for discriminating among a large group of items in a relatively short amount of time.

RM MCOM TABULATION OF DATA

Classification & tabulation of data from Bijaya Bhusan Nanda

RM MCOM TABULATION OD DATA

SOURCE http://www.newagepublishers.com/samplechapter/001968.pdf

RM MCOM LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT

LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT

    A level of measurement is the precision by which a variable is measured. For 50 years, with few detractors, science has used the Stevens (1951) typology of measurement levels. There are three things to remember about this typology: (1) anything that can be measured falls into one of the four types; (2) the higher the type, the more precision in measurement; and (3) every level up contains all the properties of the previous level. The four levels of measurement, from lowest to highest, are:

·         Nominal

·         Ordinal

·         Interval

·         Ratio 

    The nominal level of measurement describes variables that are categorical in nature. The characteristics of the data you're collecting fall into distinct categories. If there are a limited number of distinct categories (usually only two), then you're dealing with a discrete variable. If there are an unlimited or infinite number of distinct categories, then you're dealing with a continuous variable. Nominal variables include demographic characteristics like sex, race, and religion. 

    The ordinal level of measurement describes variables that can be ordered or ranked in some order of importance. It describes most judgments about things, such as big or little, strong or weak. Most opinion and attitude scales or indexes in the social sciences are ordinal in nature. 

    The interval level of measurement describes variables that have more or less equal intervals, or meaningful distances between their ranks. For example, if you were to ask somebody if they were first, second, or third generation immigrant, the assumption is that the distance, or number of years, between each generation is the same. All crime rates in criminal justice are interval level measures, as is any kind of rate. 

    The ratio level of measurement describes variables that have equal intervals and a fixed zero (or reference) point. It is possible to have zero income, zero education, and no involvement in crime, but rarely do we see ratio level variables in social science since it's almost impossible to have zero attitudes on things, although "not at all", "often", and "twice as often" might qualify as ratio level measurement.

    Advanced statistics require at least interval level measurement, so the researcher always strives for this level, accepting ordinal level (which is the most common) only when they have to. Variables should be conceptually and operationally defined with levels of measurement in mind since it's going to affect how well you can analyze your data later on.

RM MCOM LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT

LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT

Level of measurement refers to the way that a variable is measured. There are four main levels of measurement that variables can have: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Being familiar with the level of measurement of the variables in your data set is crucial because they will help determine what statistical procedure you use. Not every statistical operation can be used with every variable. The type of procedure used depends on the variables’ level of measurement.

There is a hierarchy implied in the levels of measurement such that that at lower levels of measurement (nominal, ordinal), assumptions are typically less restrictive and data analyses are less sensitive. At each level up the hierarchy, the current level includes all the qualities of the one below it in addition to something new. In general, it is desirable to have higher levels of measurement (interval or ratio) rather than a lower one. Let’s examine each level of measurement in order from lowest to highest on the hierarchy:

NOMINAL LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT

At the nominal level of measurement, variables simply name the attribute it is measuring and no ranking is present. For example, gender is a nominal variable because we classify the observations into the categories "male" and "female." Because the different categories (for instance, males and females) vary in quality but not quantity, nominal variables are often called qualitative variables. An important feature of nominal variables is that there is no hierarchy or ranking to the categories. For instance, males are not ranked higher than females or vice versa – there is no order or rank, just different names assigned to each.

Other examples of nominal variables include political party, religion, marital status, and race. Nominal variables are also commonly referred to as categorical variables.

ORDINAL LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT

Variables that have an ordinal level of measurement can be rank-ordered. For example, social class is an ordinal variable because we can say that a person in the category "upper class" has a higher class position than a person in a “middle class” category, which again is higher than "lower class."

In ordinal variables, the distance between categories does not have any meaning. For example, we don’t know how much higher "upper class" is to "middle class" or "lower class." All we know is the order of the categories, but the interval between values is not interpretable.

Other examples of ordinal variables include education level (less than high school, high school degree, some college, etc.) and letter grades (A, B, C, D, F).

INTERVAL LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT

In interval measurement, the distance between the attributes, or categories, does have meaning. For example, temperature is an interval variable because the distance between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit is the same as the distance between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The interval between the values is interpretable. For this reason, it makes sense to compute averages, or means, of interval variables, where it doesn’t make sense to do so for ordinal variables. With interval variables, however, ratios do not make sense. That is, 80 degrees Fahrenheit is not twice as hot as 40 degrees Fahrenheit, even though the attribute value is twice as large.

RATIO LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT

Variables that are measured at the ratio level are similar to interval variables, however they have an absolute zero that is meaningful (i.e. no numbers exist below zero). That is, you can construct a meaningful ratio, or fraction, with a ratio variable.

Height and weight are both examples of ratio variables. If you are measuring a person’s height in inches, there is quantity, equal units, and the measurement cannot go below zero inches. A negative height is not possible.

BCOM INTRODUCTION TO CST ACT

MCOM TWELVE STEPS IN MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS

TWELVE STEPS IN MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS

The twelve stages or steps in a marketing research process are:

1.    Problem identification,

2.    Problem definition,

3.    Research design,

4.    Determining data needs,

5.    Determining data sources,

6.    Sampling design,

7.    Designing questionnaire,

8.    Field staff selection,

9.    Collection and processing of data,

10.                       Analysis and interpretation of data,

11.                       Project reporting and

12.                       Follow up.

Now let's discuss above steps involved in a marketing research process.

1. Problem identification

The first step in a marketing research process is to identify the problem or opportunity. The problem may be about decrease in sales, increase in competition, expansion of market, etc.

2. Problem definition

The second step in a marketing research process is to define the problem. In this stage, the researcher must understand the problem correctly. He must find out the scope of the problem, the type of information needed, etc. If the problem is not defined properly, then it will result in waste of time, money and resources.

3. Research design

The third step in a marketing research process is to prepare research design.

Research design is a plan for conducting a research. It guides the researcher in data collection. It gives proper direction to the research.

There are three types of research designs:

Exploratory research,

Descriptive Research and

Experimental Research.

All three types are used for marketing research.

4. Determining data needs

The fourth step in a marketing research process is to determine the data needs. The researcher must consider the following issues:

Whether to use primary data or secondary data or both.

The accuracy and reliability of the data.

The availability of accurate and reliable data.

The cost and time required to collect the data.

5. Determining data sources

The fifth step in a marketing research process is to determine the data sources.

The researcher decides the sources of collecting data. The two main sources are secondary data and primary data.

The researcher first collects secondary data. This is because it is easily available and less costly. It is collected by Desk Research. Desk Research can be internal for e.g. collected from company's records or external i.e. acquired from libraries, trade journals, government sources, etc. If the secondary data is not sufficient to solve the marketing problem, then primary data is wheeled.

Collecting primary data is very costly and time consuming. It can be collected by using survey methods, i.e. by doing personal interviews, telephone interviews and mail surveys. It can also be collected by using observational method and experimentation method.

So in this step the researcher decides what source and what method to use for collecting data.

6. Sampling design

The sixth step in a marketing research process is of sampling design.

The Researchers has limited time and other resources. So he cannot contact the total population. That is, he cannot collect information from all the people in the market. Therefore, he selects few persons from the population. These handful persons are called sample respondent. They are considered to represent the total population. The researcher collects data from the sample respondents.

Sampling helps to save time, efforts and cost. It is used to collect primary data. The researcher has to decide about method of sampling, the size-of-sample, etc.

7. Designing questionnaire

The seventh step in a marketing research process is of designing a questionnaire.

In this stage, primary data is collected with the help of a questionnaire. So the researcher has to prepare a questionnaire. A questionnaire is a list of questions. These questions are asked to the respondents for collecting data. The questionnaire must be suitable so that the require data is collected easily, quickly and correctly. It is used for conducting person interview, telephone interviews and mail survey. The researcher must decide about the type of the information required, the type of questioned to be asked, the wordings of the questionnaire, its order, etc.

8. Field staff selection

The eighth step in a marketing research process is of selecting field staff.

After preparing the questionnaire, the researcher selects field interviewers. The field interviewers collect information from the respondents. They must be property trained. Students of psychology and statistics are good for this job.

9. Collection and processing of data

The ninth step in a marketing research process is of collection and processing of data.

In this stage, the data is collected from the respondents. The questionnaire is used for collecting data. In case of mail surveys, the questionnaire is sent to the respondents by post. In case of telephone interviews, the data is collected through telephone. In case of personal interviews, the data is collected by the field interviewers. The researcher can also use observation method and experimentation method for collecting data. The data collected must be reliable and complete. It must also be collected quickly. Secondary data is also collected. The data collected is raw. It cannot be used directly. It has to be processed and organised neatly. That is, the data must be edited, coded, classified and tabulated. Editing helps to remove the unwanted data. Coding, classification and tabulation make the data ready for analysis and interpretation.

10. Analysis and interpretation of data

The tenth step in a marketing research process is of analysis and interpretation of data.

In this stage, the researcher analyzes and interprets the data. That is, he studies the data very careful and draws conclusions from it. These conclusions are then used to solve the marketing problem.

11. Project reporting

The eleventh step in a marketing research process is to prepare a project report.

In this stage, the researcher prepares the final research report. This report contains a title of the report, method used, findings, conclusions and suggestions about how to solve the marketing problem. The language of the report must not be very difficult. The report must be submitted to the marketing executives for recommendations and implementation.

12. Follow up

Finally, the last step in a marketing research process is to do a follow up.

In this stage, the marketing executive makes changes in the product, price, marketing policies, etc. as per the recommendations of the report. Here, the researcher should find out, whether his recommendations are implemented properly or not. He should also figure-out, whether the marketing problem is solved or not.

So these are the twelve steps in a marketing research process.

MARKETING ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING

ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING

Ethical problems in marketing stem from conflicts and disagreements. Each party in a marketing transaction brings a set of expectations regarding how the business relationship will exist and how transactions should be conducted. Each facet of marketing has ethical danger points as discussed below.

Market Research

Some ethical problems in market research are the invasion of privacy and stereotyping. The latter occurs because any analysis of real populations needs to make approximations and place individuals into groups. However, if conducted irresponsibly, stereotyping can lead to a variety of ethically undesirable results.

Market Audience

Selective marketing is used to discourage demand from so-called undesirable market sectors or disenfranchise them altogether. Examples of unethical market exclusion are past industry attitudes to the gay, ethnic minority, and plus-size markets.

Another ethical issue relates to vulnerable audiences in emerging markets in developing countries, as the public there may not be sufficiently aware of skilled marketing ploys.

Ethics in Advertising and Promotion

In the 1940s and 1950s, tobacco used to be advertised as promoting health. Today an advertiser who fails to tell the truth offends against morality in addition to the law. However the law permits puffery (a legal term). The difference between mere puffery and fraud is a slippery slope.

Sexual innuendo is a mainstay of advertising content, and yet is also regarded as a form of sexual harassment. Violence is an issue especially for children's advertising and advertising likely to be seen by children.

The advertising of certain products may strongly offend some people while being of interest to others. Examples include: feminine hygiene products as well as hemorrhoid and constipation medication. The advertising of condoms has become acceptable in the interests of AIDS-prevention, but are nevertheless seen by some as promoting promiscuity.

Through negative advertising techniques, the advertiser highlights the disadvantages of competitor products rather than the advantages of their own. These methods are especially used in politics.

Delivery Channels

Direct marketing is the most controversial of advertising channels, particularly when approaches are unsolicited. TV commercials and direct mail are common examples. Electronic spam and telemarketing push the borders of ethics and legality more strongly.

Deceptive Advertising and Ethics

Deceptive marketing is not specific to one target market, and can sometimes go unnoticed by the public. There are several ways in which deceptive marketing can be presented to consumers; one of these methods is accomplished through the use of humor. Humor provides an escape or relief from some kind of human constraint, and some advertisers intend to take advantage of this by deceptively advertising a product that can potentially alleviate that constraint through humor.

Anti-competitive Practices

Bait and switch is a form of fraud where customers are "baited" by advertising for a product or service at a low price; second, the customers discover that the advertised good is not available and are "switched" to a costlier product.

Planned obsolescence is a policy of designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time and put the consumer under pressure to purchase again.

A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public .

Pyramid Scheme

Pyramid Scheme

This business practice relies on getting the initial investor or "captain" to enroll others for a fee to them who in turn will also enroll others in order to get paid.

Pricing Ethics

Bid rigging is a form of fraud in which a commercial contract is promised to one party, although for the sake of appearance several other parties also present a bid.

Predatory pricing is the practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry for potential new competitors.

Using Ethics as a Marketing Tactic

Major corporations fear the damage to their image associated with press revelations of unethical practices. Marketers have been quick to perceive the market's preference for ethical companies, often moving faster to take advantage of this shift in consumer taste. This results in the propagation of ethics itself as a selling point or a component of a corporate image.

Marketing ethics, regardless of the product offered or the market targeted, sets the guidelines for which good marketing is practiced. To market ethically and effectively one should be reminded that all marketing decisions and efforts are necessary to meet and suit the needs of customers, suppliers, and business partners. The mindset of many companies is that they are concerned for the population and the environment in which they due business. They feel that they have a social responsibility to people, places and things in their sphere of influence.