Case Study: Arup Packaging Limited

Employees are the most important people in any organization, and therefore it is crucial for employers to invest in recruitment and selection. This is an effort to make sure that they have hired the right candidate for the position. Recruiters have many ways to decide on the selection process concerning the kind of candidates they want. In Arup Packaging Limited they want to recruit young people from the ages of 18-24 years, and therefore they will have to find ways in which they can reach them. The managers have also agreed to change the criteria they use and go with personal qualities and general knowledge. Due to the vast number of employees and the little time to recruit the best selection methods would be face-to-face meetings and preliminary screening. Additionally, it is important to note that to attract more recruits the company would have to offer incentives and benefits. This paper seeks to discuss the recruitment and selection process of Arup Packaging Limited while providing suggestions on the most suitable incentives and benefits to offer candidates.

When recruiting candidates between the ages of 18-24 years, the average recruitments methods are seen as stale and therefore the hirer should come up with fun ways of hiring (Nguyen, 2012, 1). Unusual forms of recruitment are not new in the business world, and employees who are hired through these processes have turned out to be unique and enthused about their jobs from day one. The hirers need to understand that for them to acquire the best candidates; they need to learn to speak the language of the young adults to avoid scouring through a considerable number of unqualified individuals (Herrenkohl, 2010, 20).

The first way that the interviewer can attract young candidates is through networking events. These events and meet-ups happen often and are usually the right places to find fresh applicants. The recruiter attends meet-ups with the individuals they want. An example is the case of Arup Packaging Limited; they are interested in new workers for the new factory in Europe for the plastic and paper packaging and therefore would attend a networking event that covers that department. Secondly, the recruiters should use social media platforms to attract the younger generation into the job vacancies in the company. The young individuals might find the usual job websites as dull and outdated and therefore the company should place the ads on social media to attract individuals between 18-24 years.

Consequently, the company managers also think it is a good idea to increase the number of female workers in the company. One of the ways that could lure women into the jobs is making the advertisements in places where women will look. It means that the recruiter should post the job vacancies on women’s websites or women’s career fairs in colleges. Another site for finding applicants would be researching for women groups and organizations on social media where they are guaranteed on detecting a wide range of potential and talented individuals. With this in mind, it is crucial to note that giving women more opportunities in the company does not mean that they will start hiring under-qualified women just to create balance in the organization (Rafnsdóttir and Heijstra, 2013, 284).
Selection criteria are used to help identify the most accurate match between the skills of an applicant and position requirements (Brown, Bull and Pendlebury, 2013, 141). However, no matter how qualified an applicant is if they do not portray this when needed, they usually do not pass the interview stage. It is therefore essential for the candidate to ensure they double-cross the requirements before they submit the application. In selecting new employees for the factory in Europe, I would recommend the applicant’s qualities and general knowledge. Personal attributes are what makes the individual unique from everyone else (Duckworth and Yeager, 2015, 237). On the other hand, general knowledge of paper and plastic would be necessary since it would mean less time for training. These criteria would best suit the kind of employees required since, in their discussion, the four managers gave opinions on what kind of applicants they wanted. During the meeting, Manju and Chris mentioned that the three most crucial characters would be fit, healthy, and attention to detail. They reasoned that the job involved a lot of lifting and movement around the factory and therefore a person who is healthy would be perfect for the job. Additionally, they noted that they were interested in someone who enjoyed the teamwork and has attention to detail. The factory has different teams allocated jobs; therefore someone who works well with others would have a higher chance of getting the job than the individuals who are loners. The reason personal qualities and general knowledge are the most important for applicants is that the company understands that they need a new approach in their hiring process to provide employees who are unique and ready for change at any time. The managers also explained that experience was not relevant as they could offer training for the new employees in all departments. They want to embrace a new trend of swapping employees to different departments to ensure they stayed sharp and were not bored with their jobs (Dewar and Dewar, 2017, 32). This approach is both beneficial for the employees as well as the management since they eliminate the possibility of getting stuck when an employee quits.

The selection techniques of the human resource department vary based on the resources and employees (Shaw, Park and Kim, 2013, 579). Some of these methods include phone interviews, face-to-face meetings, vetting of applicants, and preliminary screening to ensure that a candidate is qualified for the position. All these measures come in handy during retention, low turnover, and wise decision-making. Considering that Arup Packaging Limited is hiring 150 employees and the period is five months the best methods would be preliminary screening and face-to-face meetings. The recruiter would receive applications from interested individuals and then they would decide on which applicants to contact. Preliminary screening would help determine whether an individual has any general knowledge about the company and the position they applied for. This would help save both time and money that would have been sent if the company decided to skip the part of asking for resumes. When companies use preliminary screening, they can take down their advertisement when they find the number of applicants they wanted (Storey, 2014, 58). A face-to-face meeting is so that the recruiters can identify the personal qualities of the applicants. Interviews will take a long time and therefore narrow down the candidates through the preliminary screening helps the interviewers spend less time asking questions. The resume already has given the experience parts of the individual, and the work of face-to-face meeting is discovering the character of each person. This process will ensure that the company hires the best workers who will be dedicated to achieving the factory’s end game. The recruiter narrows the number of applicants in accordance with whether they will meet the expectations of the company. The face-to-face meetings also allow the applicants to interact with the individuals they will be working for which is essential because they are given a chance to deny the position if they find the work environment is not suitable for them. For example, if a candidate finds that some of the company expectations go against their beliefs, the face-to-face meetings offer transparency.

Salary is an important factor in the life of a worker’s career even though it is not the only motivator to attract applicants to a job position (Sauermann and Roach, 2014, 35). When individuals apply for jobs, they are keen to look at the benefits and incentives that the company offers apart from the salary. A company, therefore, needs to understand that the aim is not only to hire employees but also focus on their retention; thus if the employer does not invest in his/ her employees, they are prone to losing them to competitor companies (Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee, 2013, 113). The managers discussed that they needed a change in the Europe factory and one of the incentives that they could offer their new employees is switching up the workday. There are those workers who are not at their best under the seven to five o’clock work schedules, and a switch-up could help keep them active. The company could give employees benchmarks to work towards instead of having the normal hours. Benchmarking would go a long way in ensuring that employees understand that if they get their tasks done, they are free to go home at any time. Another incentive would be offering workers bonuses which give all workers an opportunity to get involved in the company goals. A benefit that the managers suggested was they should keep the base pay above the Award rate but discovered that it would not work in the European section. I would recommend since the new employees will have a more extensive expertise set they could offer a generous paid time off. Considering that the factory required a lot of work done time paid off would ensure that employees stay motivated which then improves their output. Another benefit would be offering medical insurance to the employees. Like one of the managers suggested, the factory can be hazardous and health care costs increasing every day, it would be important for the company to make their workers feel protected. Medical insurance would also be affordable for the workers thus giving them peace of mind to concentrate on their jobs.

In conclusion, the discussion reveals the importance of workers in the factory. They are the ones who ensure the success of the company, and therefore it is crucial to get the right person to get the job done. In the European section, the managers decided to take a different approach to recruit new employees. They chose not to focus on experience as they would offer training to the new workers. They, therefore, decided to go with general knowledge and personal qualities as they would make each employee unique. The company also understands that hiring is not the only goal and incentives and benefits are important. They could give the new employees motivation to perform their tasks and make them feel like they are part of the company.

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