Post on 07-Aug-2015
Abstract Summary: City Bank Ltd. is the oldest private bank of Bangladesh. It
started its journey in the year 1983 and still going strong enough. With the vision
of ‘’The Financial Supermarket with a Winning Culture Offering Enjoyable
Experiences’’ they are making their journey. From the very beginning till today
their target has been making profit through doing some good to mass people. For
this reason they need to maintain their bank with efficient officials. And for
efficient officials first step is to select best possible candidate for the job which
begins with recruitment and finishes in selection. So selection can be
conceptualized in terms of either choosing the fit candidate or rejecting the unfit
one, or combination of both. So, selection process assumes rightly that, there is
more number of candidates than the numbers of candidates are actually to be
selected where candidates are made available through recruitment process. It is
said in terms of Bangladesh. During the whole process of selection candidates
need to go through several evaluation test, medical checkup, background
information check and so on. Candidates who pass all the steps are selected for
the job.
Introduction
The size of the labor market, the image of the company, the place of posting, the
nature of job, the compensation package and a host of other factors influence the
manner of aspirants are likely to respond to the recruiting efforts of the company.
Through the process of recruitment the company tries to locate prospective
employees and encourages them to apply for vacancies at various levels.
Recruiting, thus, provides a pool of applicants for selection.
Definition: To select mean to choose. Selection is the process of picking
individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs in an organization. The
basic purpose is to choose the individual who can most successfully perform the
job from the pool of qualified candidates.
Purpose: The purpose of selection is to pick up the most suitable candidate who
would meet the requirements of the job in an organization best, to find out which
job applicant will be successful, if hired. To meet this goal, the company conducts
several tests as well as obtains and assesses information about the applicants in
terms of age, qualifications, skills, experience, etc. the needs of the job are
matched with the profile of candidates. The most suitable person is then picked
up after eliminating the unsuitable applicants through successive stages of
selection process. How well an employee is matched to a job is very important
because it is directly affects the amount and quality of employee’s work. Any
mismatched in this regard can cost an organization a great deal of money, time
and trouble, especially, in terms of training and operating costs. In course of time,
the employee may find the job distasteful and leave in frustration. He may even
circulate ‘hot news’ and juicy bits of negative information about the company,
causing incalculable harm to the company in the long run. Effective election,
therefore, demands constant monitoring of the ‘fit’ between people the job. A
successful selection process requires a successful recruitment.
Recruitment process of City Bank Ltd.: Successful employment planning is
designed to identify an organization’s human resources needs. Once these needs
are known, an organization will want to meet them. First step to meet the need is
recruitment. Recruitment is the process of discovering potential candidates for
actual organizational vacancies. City bank Ltd. conducts their recruitment process
by several ways. These are given bellow:
Recruitment procedure of City Bank Ltd.
Internal External
1. Advertisement (printed media,
newspaper
2. Unsolicited/ Walk in
3. Employment agency
4. Professional organizations
Internal: Employee referral: An employee referral program is a system where
existing employees recommend prospective candidates for the job offered, and if
the suggested candidate is hired, the employee who referred may have to bear
the liability.
External sources: City Bank Ltd. recruits most of its applicants through external
sources.
Advertisement (printed media, newspaper): Advertising is a key part of the
recruitment process for City Bank Ltd. The purpose of advertising is to
Employee referral
reach the largest qualified audience. City Bank focuses on printed media
especially on newspaper for their advertisement. The process for searching
and advertising should be determined by early discussions with concerned
members and the Search Committee. It is important to ensure that the
wording of advertisement does not work to exclude possible recruits. The
focus should be on inclusion rather than exclusion, particularly when
attempting to diversify a department or faculty. Best practices from best
universities of Bangladesh emphasize the importance of using broad
descriptors in your advertisement.
Unsolicited/ Walk in: City Bank Ltd. generally receives a huge number of
unsolicited applications from job seekers at various points of time; the
number of such applications depends on economic conditions, the image of
the company and the job seeker’s perception of the types of jobs that
might be available etc. Such applications are generally kept in a data bank
and whenever a suitable vacancy arises, City Bank Ltd. intimates the
candidates to apply through a formal channel.
Employment agency: These businesses specialize in recruitment and
selection. They often specialize in recruitment for specific sectors. They
usually provide a shortlist of candidates based on the people registered
with the agency. They also supply temporary or interim employees. City
Bank Ltd. heirs employee of low level like security guard through
employment agency.
Professional organizations: City Bank Ltd. usually heirs high officials
through professional organizations. Main sources for City Bank Ltd. for
hiring from professional organizations are MBA club in Gulsan, Board of
chartered accountant etc. They take very few number of officials from
professional organizations.
Description of selection procedure of the City Bank Ltd.:
The Process
City Bank Ltd uses discrete approach for their selection process. Selection process
of City Bank Ltd. is usually a series of hurdles or steps. Each one must be
successfully cleared before the applicant proceeds to the next one. The time and
emphasis place on each step will definitely vary from job to job. The sequence of
steps may also vary from job to job. For example City Bank gives more importance
both on written test and other procedures for entry level officer while more
emphasis to interviews and reference checks for higher level contractual job like
managing director or departmental head. Similarly for lower level positions jobs
are provided through agency, while applicants for managerial jobs might be
interviewed by a number of people.
Steps in Selecting Process
Steps in Selecting Process of City Bank Ltd.:
1. Initial Screening
Selection procedure of City Bank Ltd.
2. Employment Test
3. Completed Application Form
4. Background Information
5. Medical Check Up
1. Permanent Job Offer
Initial Screening:
The first step of Selection process of City Bank is Initial screening. From the
prospect of Bangladesh where unemployment level is so high, almost all the time
City Bank gets more pool of candidate than they require. So, they can easily
eliminate some of them based on job description, job specification and on
cumulative CGPA system based on individuals academic CGPA and university
ranking. So City Bank does not have any fixed CGPA for all the university rather it
varies from university to university. Applications are processed comparing the
qualifications of the applicant to the qualifications of the posting.
City Bank conducts initial screening in several ways. The initial screening process
may include either a telephone or face-to-face interview to determine a short list
of candidates. A second in-person interview may be established using the short
list to further investigate the qualifications and skills match to the position.
Human Resources staff usually conducts initial interviews, which may or may not
include operational staff. The second interview will include the hiring supervisor
or manager.
Employment test: City Bank Ltd. Relay to a considerable extent on intelligence,
aptitude, ability, and interest test to provide major input to the selection process.
In this employment test that attempts to asses intelligence, abilities, personality
trait, performance simulation tests including work sampling and the tests
administered at assessment centers- followed by a discussion about the integrity
test. A test is a standardized, objective measure of a person’s behavior,
performance or attitude. It is standardized because the way the tests is carried
out, the environment in which the test is administered and the way the individual
scores are calculated- are uniformly applied. It is objective in that it tries to
measure individual differences in a scientific way giving very little room for
individual bias and interpretation. Over the years employment tests of City Bank
Ltd. have not only gained importance but also a certain amount of inevitability in
employment decisions. Since they try to objectively determine how well an
applicant meets the job requirement, City Bank does not hesitate to invest their
time and money in selection testing in a big way. Some of the commonly used
employment tests are:
•Written tests
•Assessment centers
• Work sampling
•Achievement tests
•Intelligence tests
•Aptitude tests
•Personality tests
•Behavioral test
• Miscellaneous tests such as honesty tests.
•Written tests: City Bank Ltd. usually conducts written test when they go for mass
selection. They have two kinds of mass selection process. They are standard level
and management trainee (MT) program. Through Mt program they try to look for
future leader of City Bank. But in both the cases of MT program and standard
level they set same pattern of question which involves mathematics, English,
analytical question and general knowledge. They have a fixed pass mark and they
do not except anyone at anyway below that mark.
•Assessment centers: An assessment centre is an extended work sample. It uses
procedures that incorporate group and individual exercises. These exercises are
designed to stimulate the type of work which the candidate will be expected to
do. Initially a small batch of applicants comes to the assessment centre (a
separate room). Their performance in the situational exercise is observed and
evaluated by a team of 6-8 assessors. The assessors’ judgments on each exercise
are complied and combined to have a summary rating for each candidate being
assessed.
• Work sampling: Work sample creates a miniature replica of a job. City Bank Ltd.
actually designee it for lower level employee like cashier, typist, customer service
representative etc. Applicants demonstrate that they possess the necessary skill
by doing the tasks. Carefully devised work sample based on job analysis data
determine the knowledge, skills, and ability needed for each job. Then, each work
sample eliminate is matched with a corresponding job performance element. For
example, a work sample for customer service representative at City Bank Ltd. may
involve key board computation: the applicants make computations during a
customer transaction. The advantages of work sample over a pencil and paper
test s should be obvious for selecting these kinds of job employees. Because work
sample is essentially identical to job content, work sampling should be a better
predictor for these kinds of job positions and should minimize discriminations.
Additionally, the nature of their content and the methods used to determine
content help well-constructed work sample test easily meet job related
requirements. The major difficulty for work sample test is to develop good work
sample in every situation.
•Achievement tests: These are designed to measure what the applicant can do
on the job currently, i.e., whether the applicant actually knows what he or she
claims to know. An applicant for mid level manager may need to know Ms excel
work. Now if he is given to solve a MS excel sheet it will show if his or claim to be
expert in MS excel or true or false.etc. Such tests are also known as work
proficiency tests. Proficiency tests is a selection tests wherein the job applicant’s
ability to do a small portion of the job is tested. These tests are of two types;
Motor, involving physical manipulations of things(e.g., trade tests for carpenters,
electricians, plumbers) or Verbal, involving problem situation that are primarily
language-oriented or people-oriented(e.g., situational tests for supervisory
jobs).Since work samples are miniature replicas of the actual job requirements,
they are difficult to fake. They offer concrete evidence of the proficiency of an
applicant as against his ability to the job. However proficiency tests are not cost-
effective and every candidate has to be tested individually. It is not easy to
develop a procedure to perform proficiency tests for each job. Moreover, it is not
applicable to all levels of the organization. That is why City Bank Ltd. performs it
only when they doubt about the skill ability provided by applicant.
•Intelligence tests: Officials from HR department of City Bank Ltd. conduct this
test while taking viva. They ask simple questions and observe their answer. Their
questions are pretty much simple like “What do u want to be 10 years from now”.
They actually test the smartness of the applicant. Sometimes they create pressure
situation to see how the candidate react in a pressure situations. Tests of general
intelligence are said to correlate very highly with job performance. If other factors
are equal, supporters claim that a more intelligent person is able to perform a
given job more efficiently. This is especially true in cognitive-loaded professions,
although observed correlations are low due to range restriction (e.g., most brain
surgeons are highly intelligent). Those opposed to the use of these tests note that
there are substantial cultural effects on scores and that many prominent
psychologists do not agree that there is a single measure of intelligence (e.g.,
Professor Howard Gardner).
•Aptitude tests: Aptitude test measure an individual’s potential to learn certain
skills- clerical, mechanical, mathematical, etc. These tests indicate whether or not
an individual has the capabilities to learn a given job quickly and efficiently. In
order to recruit efficient office staff, aptitude tests are necessary. Aptitude tests
are always administered in combination with other tests like intelligence and
personality tests as it does not measure on-the-job-motivation.
•Personality tests: Of all test required for selection the personality tests have
generated a lot of heat and controversy. In spite of that City Bank Ltd performs
conducts personality test. The definition of personality, methods of measuring
personality factors and the relationship between personality factors and actual
job criteria has been the subject of much discussion. Researchers have also
questioned whether applicants answer all the items truthfully or whether they try
to respond in a socially desirable manner. Regardless of these objections, many
people still consider personality as an important component of job success.
•Behavioral and honesty test: City Bank Ltd. human resources officials pointed
out that during every selection process they figure out many applicants who lost
their job in other banks because of behavioral issues. So they take it very
seriously. In City Bank LTD. behavioral test is used as complement the
interviewing process in determining if someone is a good fit for the job and for
the company culture. But it can also help you manage your existing team, by
identifying employees' work or learning styles and providing insight into the most
effective ways to communicate with and coach them.
Behavioral tests assess personality traits such as how people relate to others and
how they approach tasks. They provide an overview of someone's personality,
including general characteristics, such as if someone leans more toward
introversion or extroversion, or if a person is more of a right-brain or a left-brain
thinker. But some tests also provide insight into situation-specific traits, such as
how much direction a person needs, if he works best during the day or at night
and if he is better suited to starting projects or finishing them. As part of the
hiring process, it can help narrow down the applicant pool and provide a more in-
depth assessment than just interviewing. Assessment tests can also help
employers create balanced teams, by identifying which employees are
comfortable in leadership positions, for example, and which have stronger
communication skills.
The tests can also provide insight into employees' working styles, information
employers can use in assigning employees tasks after they are hired. It may also
aid in employee retention, by helping employers better understand their
employees' strengths, challenges and needs. If challenges arise later, employers
will have a better understanding of how to reach out and guide an employee,
increasing the likelihood the employee will stay with the company.
Behavioral tests can produce a great deal of interesting and in-depth information,
but that is just the beginning. Employers also need to understand what those
results mean to employees and to the company.
Completed application form: Applicants who pass the entire test above they are
provided a form and fill that up. Applications forms are traditionally and vastly
used formula to collect information from applicants. It should provide all the
information related to selection, where reference for caste, religion, birth place,
may be avoided as it regarded as evidence of discrimination. However, in respect
to City Bank Ltd. The use of application form is mostly used for getting their job
related personal information which is mentioned above.
Back ground investigation: Applicants who have successfully completed all
previous phases of the selection process are eligible to continue in the process
with a background investigation as determined by the department. The
background investigation for City Bank Ltd. includes but is not limited to the
following reviews: criminal record, current and previous employment history and
references. The personnel department will engage in checking references.
Candidate’s are required to give the names of 2 or 3 references in their
application forms. These references may be from the individuals who are familiar
with the candidate’s academic achievements or from the applicant’s previous
employer, who is well versed with the applicant’s job performance and
sometimes from the co-workers. In case the reference check is from the previous
employer, information in the following areas may be obtained. They are job title,
job description, period of employment, pay and allowances, gross emoluments,
benefits provided, rate of absence, willingness of previous employer to employ
the candidate again, etc. Further, information regarding candidate’s regularity at
work, character, progress, etc. can be obtained. Often a telephone call is much
quicker. The method of mail query provides detailed information about the
candidate’s performance, character and behavior. However, a personal visit is
superior to the mail or telephone methods and is used where it is highly essential
to get detailed, first hand information which can also be secured by observation.
Reference checks are taken as a matter of routine and treated casually or omitted
entirely in many organizations. But a good reference check, when used sincerely,
will fetch useful and reliable information to the organization. Hiring decision: The
line manager has to make the final decision now – whether to select or reject a
candidate after soliciting the required information through different techniques
discussed earlier. The line manager has to take adequate care in taking the final
decision because of economic, behavioral and social implications of the selection
decisions. A careless decision of rejecting a candidate would impair the morale of
the people and they suspect the selection procedure and the very basis of
selection in a particular organization. So in case of rejecting City Bank Ltd is more
careful
Medical checkup: For City Bank Ltd. Applicants who have crossed the above
stages are sent for physical examinations to a medical officer approved for the
purpose. Such examination serves following purposes:
a) It determines whether the candidate is physically fit to perform the job,
where who are physically unfit are rejected.
b) It revels existing disabilities provides a record of the employee’s health at
the time of selection. This record will help in setting company’s liability
under the workmen compensation act for claim for any harm to health.
c) It prevents the employment of people suffering from contagious diseases.
d) It identifies candidates who are otherwise suitable but require specific jobs
due to physical handicaps and allergies.
e) City Bank Ltd. Provide health insurance for their employee. So it is
necessary to know candidates’ health conditions to determine their
insurance policy.
Job offer: If everything goes well so far City Bank Ltd. Offer a job to the candidates
who have passed. And if the salary is not fixed they discuss about the salary just
before the job offer is made.
Some Important factors considering selection procedure: To be useful as
predictive and diagnostic selection tools, test must satisfy certain basic
requirements:
•Reliability: Test scores should not vary widely under repeated conditions. If a
test is administered to the same individual repeatedly, he should get
approximately identical score. Reliability is the confidence that an indicator will
measure the same thing every time.
•Validity: Validity is the extent to which an instrument measures what it intends
to measure. In a typing test validity measures a typist’s speed and accuracy. To
determine whether it really measures the speed and accuracy of a typist is to
demonstrate its validity. The question if determining the validity of a selection
test, thus, has a lot to do with later performance on the job.
•Qualified People: Test requires a high level of professional skills in their
administration and interpretation. Professional, technicians are needed for skilled
judgmental interpretations of test scores.
•Preparation: A test should be well prepared. It should be easy to understand
and simple to administer.
•Suitability: a test must fit the nature of the group on which it is applied. A
written test comprising difficult words would be fruitless when it is administered
on less educated workers.
•Usefulness: Exclusive reliance on any single test should be avoided, since the
results in such a case are likely to be criticized. To be useful, it is always better to
use a battery of test.
•Standardization: Norms for finalizing test scores should be established. There
must be prescribed methods and procedures for administering the test and for
scoring or interpreting it.
Problems of City Bank Ltd. Selection process: The most severe problem of City
Bank Ltd. Selection process is that their selection process is highly bios
sometimes. They are bios of political influences and unjustified recommendation
of board of directors. City Bank officials accused that it has happened several
times that they had to take unqualified candidates because of those pressures. As
a result of this they had to suffer in their business. Apart from that City Bank Ltd.
does not have any constant structure that can reflect their reliability, validity,
usefulness of tests. All the facts regarding these factors mentioned above is only
in under process. As they do not have such constant criteria their standard of
selection differs every time which is not good at all in a highly competitive market
like Bangladesh where business field is growing very fast.
Prospect of City Bank Ltd. selection process: Though City Bank Ltd. does not have
any fixed criteria their interview of candidate is really useful. They conduct
interviews through the combination of officials of three different departments. In
the interview board there are officials from human resources department,
functional department and from cross functional department. Combination of
these three departments makes the interview an effective one.
One of the strongest points of City Bank Ltd. is that their human resource
department is really powerful. No candidate can get a job until and unless they
get clearance from human resources department. Even if a candidate gets a clean
pass from functional department, he or she cannot get the job if HR department
declare that candidate unfit. It has happened in the history of City Bank Ltd. one
candidate has been asked for five times for interview after getting clearance from
functional department. The reason was HR officials had confusion about that
candidate in their mind.
Another thing which is really important is that City Bank human resources high
officials are highly qualified. It helps them to take correct decisions.
Recommendations: Effective recruitment and selection process can give an
organization a competitive edge over its competitors by saving both time and
cost. City Bank Ltd. recruits major part of its employee form external source,
which affect selection procedure especially form Newspaper Ads which cost them
much. However, we have recommended some ideas that might help them to
improve their and selection process:
•Outsourcing firm:
The bank may draw required personnel from outsourcing firms. The outsourcing
firms help the organization by the initial screening of the candidates according to
the needs of the organization and creating a suitable pool of talent for the final
selection by the organization as per their needs.
•Poaching/Raiding: “Buying talent”(rather than developing it)is the latest method
being followed by the organizations today. Poaching means employing a
competent and experienced person already working with another reputed
company in the same or different industry; the organization might be a
competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by
offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the
current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not
openly talked about. Some other recommendations Selection process of City Bank
Ltd. are as follows:
•In case of recruitment and selection process City Bannk extensively use daily
newspapers advertisement. But it should go for online and arrange programming
educational institution to attract qualified people their entry and re-entry period.
•The application form of City Bank is time consuming and isn’t easy to complete,
so it should be easy to complete.
•Several days orientation program should be undertaken to provide a clear
picture about the bank, its culture, rules & regulation, employees and
management body.
•They should exercise their selection policy and should focus on selecting the best
potential people.
•It should ensure that every applicant and employee is treated equally with
dignity and respect.
•It should also focus to aid and encourage employees in realizing their full
potential.
•Selection should be made based on transparency, task oriented and merits not
on political and board of director’s influence.
•Optimization of manpower at the time of selection process.
•Defining the competent authority to approve each selection.
Future prediction: City Bank Ltd. is the oldest private commercial Bank of
Bangladesh. Its selection procedure is one of the best selection procedures of
Bangladesh. In spite of this City Bank is concentrating more on improving its
selection procedure. Though it has several short Comings City Bank shows enough
promise to do even better in the future. Political and other unjustified influences
are harming its selection procedure but it’s a matter of fact that City Bank Ltd. is
well aware of it. Their recent MT program is the prove that as their HR officials
claim that their recent MT selection was out of any kind of pressure. It shows City
Bank authority is well aware of their problem. Not only that, City Bank is
developing their criteria of reliability and validity regarding selection process. One
organization may have several shortcomings. But being aware of those problems
is more important. So, City Bank Ltd. has the potential do well in the future.
Conclusion: The globalization of business is forcing managers to struggle with
complex issues as they seek to gain or sustain a competitive advantage. City Bank
Ltd. is the oldest private commercial bank of Bangladesh and it is still going very
strong. They enjoy outstanding recruitment and selection practices in each
successful employee hired. So, their hires are better “fits” in their work groups.
They also share values, traits and behaviors that are highly regarded for success in
the bank. They reach the qualified applicants through the use of innovative
recruiting channels and eventually lead to selection. Traditionally, employers have
focused on assessment methods that are highly correlated to the content of the
job, hence most able to predict ability to perform the required duties and tasks.
However, City Bank Ltd has come to realize that success of the candidate hinges
on more than just the ability to carry out tasks and duties well. The foundation of
superior performance lies in the synergy created by a close fit with the work
group and with the bank’s culture. No process is complete without an evaluation
of its success.
References:
Books:
1. David A.DeCenzo, Stephen P. Robbins “Human Resources Management”, 8th ed. 2012.
2.. Professor Dr. M. Ataur Rahman, “Strategic Human Resource Management”, 2nd
ed. 2009
3. W. B. Wherther, JR. K. Devis, “Human Resource and Personnel Management”, 5th ed. 2004
4. Gary Dessler;“Human Resource Management ”; Seventh Edition; Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi-110001, India
5. Human resources officials of City Bank Ltd.