Recruitment provides an impetus for the search for human resource personnel who will be effective, efficient and productive in their job specifications. The essence of effective selection lies in making predictions about the future job performance of applicants for a given position. But such predictions are difficult, partly because only a limited amount of information can be gathered in the selection process, and because important characteristics of job applicants are hard to measure accurately.
Checkout Operators’ duties are mainly to ensure that they man the electronic tills: take cash and give change, use the credit card readers and take money off coupons. In addition to these duties, they have to help pack bags and generally be helpful to customers. However, these are the minimum expected of a checkout operator. Also in his/her job specification is the need to be customer oriented- this includes friendliness, helpfulness and patience in dealing with customers. The more difficult challenge is to deal with difficult customers who are demanding and sometimes irrational.
These issues coupled with the problems of finding employees who may not have problems regarding their discipline on their job, competency, absenteeism, and abusive behaviors may trigger the future problems with a checkout operator. Thus, as a member of the office personnel team, I deem it necessary that there be a recruitment and selection process that shall address the current and the future problems that we may encounter with regards to check out operators. This proposed recruitment and selection program for the Checkout Operators seeks to: (1) provide a comprehensive and specified job description for checkout operators as part of the personnel specification process; (2) provide a proposed recruitment process that will cover the selection criteria, interview process and the final selection; (3) present a recruitment advertisement and; (4) and a sample induction program for the new checkout operators.
Company Profile
Derby Retail Store, Inc. consists of a multi-department retailer, located primarily in medium-sized and larger communities. The Derby Retail Store aims to offer quality merchandise, services and value to meet customers' needs for home, family basics, casual apparel and seasonal products, along with a special emphasis on retail health, operating in-store pharmacies and optical centers. As of February 1, 2003, the Company had 8 retail stores operating in within the UK. It also serves smaller and more rural communities, offering a one-stop shopping format.
Job Description for the Checkout Operators
(also cashier, cash register assistant)
JOB DESCRIPTION
Checkout operators count the total price of customers’ purchases. They take payment and give change. They may also pack customers’ bags.
MAIN TASKS
- greeting customers at the checkout counter
- swiping goods across a scanning device to identify the prices, or in a less modern establishment, typing product codes into the cash register
- weighing and pricing goods sold by weight
- calculating the total price of a customer’s purchases
- collecting payment and giving change
- in some cases, packing a customer’s purchases
- tallying up the cash in their till at the end of their shift
- answering customers’ queries about products and prices
Personnel Specification
We all agree that our goal is to recruit and hire the very best people to the company in providing the best customer care support. Our search and selection process for hiring checkout operator is supposed to lead to that outcome, and most of us believe we can identify the most qualified applicants from a pool of candidates. However, our belief that it is obvious who is the most qualified candidate ignores the subjective aspects of human judgment and decision making.
The retail company is committed to equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees and consistent administration of policies and procedures. Accordingly, the department neither practices nor condones any form of discriminatory treatment on the basis of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, marital status or disability.
Recruitment Advertising
Recruitment can be a powerful vehicle in shifting from a seemingly old and outmoded culture to a new one. In the company for instance, the time wasted on wandering around instead of being productive necessitates action from the management.
However, too often, recruitment officials underestimate the difficulty of recruiting competent people. Further, recruitment is a highly competitive enterprise (Barber, 1998; Gabert, 1994; Heneman, Judge, & Heneman, 2000). Stated another way, recruitment is a two-way decision-making process involving decisions made both by organizations selecting new employees and by job applicants pursuing open positions. Thus, the aid of a catchy recruitment advertisement is invaluable.
Compared to Americans, UK employers emphasizes character more: it is not surprising to find personal attributes to appear in recruitment advertisements and that these convey meaningful insights into the organization and messages about the type of applicant wanted (Mathews and Redman, 1997).
In today’s challenging recruitment advertising market, we are finding that the clients/prospective employment advertisers are focused on measuring the Return On Investment (ROI) of their advertising expense. The market is more competitive than ever before; as the economic pressures on advertising budgets that many service providers are competing for is smarter and more conservative than in decades. Identifying the needs of a customer and matching those needs to a solution is challenging.
The purpose of a recruitment advertisement is to: attract the attention of prospective applicants and motivate them to find out more about the advertised opportunity; market the company, the job (checkout operator and the opportunity being offered; provide enough information to define the desired attributes of candidates; secure a pool of suitably qualified applicants from which the most suitable person can be appointed.
Suitable Selection Tests and Interview format
There are three basic components to Objective Pre-employment Interviewing: identifying, defining and quantifying information targets; the interpretation of applicant behavior during the interview; and interviewing techniques to encourage more accurate information, even when applicants perceive that accurate information will result in disqualification. Objective Pre-employment Interviewing first determines that each information target being considered for the interview is, in fact, a bona fide occupational qualification and/or essential job function.
In identifying information targets to consider, employers sometimes fail to include the activities and behaviors that actually predict hiring failures. For any given industry or profession, historically, why have some employees been disciplined or fired? If the company would like to reduce these failures in the future, I propose that the recruitment and selection of employees be reevaluated to include a clearly specified task and responsibility profile for Checkout Operators including the additional tasks that may be required of them in cases where they are not called for by their work.
The important point is to evaluate all of employees job specifications and relevant items -- not just on competency issues -- and be sure to cover the most likely possibilities, when there are multiple jobs at hand or when they are not doing anything.
Once the information targets have been identified for possible inclusion in any given interview, we can conduct an objective pre-employment interviewing then catalogs the information targets into three groups: Category I can include the traditional skills, knowledge, abilities, and experiences the assessment has determined to be appropriate for the position being sought. Category II may cover the organization's interests and requirements, such as shift requirements, conflicts of interests, etc. Category III may address the various counterproductive activities, such as substance abuse, workplace violence, lack of integrity, etc., that historically have been problems for the jobs in question. No matter which interview format is being used (Recruitment, Background, Oral Board, etc.), I recommend to always start with the traditional, or Category I, targets. Applicants expect to be questioned about their employment, education and military histories, and, with few exceptions, questions regarding these targets are not considered sensitive by either the employer or the applicant.
Obviously, if the applicant discloses that he/she does not meet the minimum qualifications regarding these topics, there is no legal or ethical reason to discuss the more sensitive Category II and III information targets. Do not confuse the consistency guideline that employers use to treat applicants equally -- without regard to gender, race, ethnic group, etc. -- with any mandate requiring employers to cover all of the exact same information targets. While "checklist interviewing" (asking all applicants exactly the same questions without regard to the applicants' backgrounds or answers) may be a fast, inexpensive way to teach newly designated interviewers -- and may even be essential to some subjective interviewing programs -- it is completely ineffective in dealing with applicant misrepresentation, a leading cause of hiring mistakes and unacceptable turnover.
Induction Programme
All new employees, should attend an induction at the Human Resource Office, on their first day. The employee must provide details and complete an employment declaration for taxation purposes before placement is effected onto the payroll. Other original documentation, such as an UK birth certificate, UK citizenship certificate or passport, evidence of qualifications, and a curriculum vitae, will also be required. The new employee will receive information about the company, conditions of employment, Occupational Health and Safety, Equity and other matters.
The Customer Care or delegate is responsible for the induction of a new staff member to the checkout operation. The first day would normally take the following format;
a meeting with the supervisor to cover the duties and responsibilities of the position, and the performance and quality standards expected;
introduction to the personal work space;
a tour of the work unit and survival information;
assignment of a mentor for instruction, questions etc.
Effective staff induction should be planned, scheduled over a period of time and meet the particular needs of both the individual and the company. It includes learning about the company and the interactions between the various areas, the acquiring of skills, experience and knowledge through learning, and the promotion of commitment to the duties of the position of checkout operator.
Conclusion
In a customer-oriented industry, customer satisfaction aside from the prices of goods, takes the primacy in retail stores. As such, the efficiency of the personnel shall represent the company in general; it shall also be the bulwark of customer service. Thus, Derby Retail Store shall take measures in selecting the personnel particularly the checkout operators of the store. This process entails a structured and planned process: from the specification of job descriptions, the recruitment advertisement, the interview process and the induction of the employees on the organization. It is important to note that in this process, the organization must present an efficient and productive organization in order for the employees to convey such image to the consumers.
Recommendations
Aside from having a planned and structured recruitment process, I recommend that a training be conducted upon the induction of the newly hired applicants. In this way, there will be a minimization of errors on the job. Furthermore, it shall give the employees an opportunity to enhance their skills and get used to their job and the organization.
References
Barber, A. E. (1998). Recruiting employees: Individual and organizational perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gabert, G. (1994). Human resource management in the community college. In G. A. Baker III (Ed.), A handbook on the community college in America (pp. 377-385). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Heneman, H. G., III, Judge, T. A., & Heneman, R. L. (2000). Staffing organizations (3rd ed.). Middleton, WI: Mendota House.
Mathews, B. and Redman, T. (1997) What do recruiters want in a public sector manager? Public Personnel Management, Vol. 26.
Thomas, J. (1998) Job aspiration and ethnic minority unemployment in the UK: is there a connection? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 24.
Appendix 1. Job Description for Checkout Operators
CHECKOUT OPERATORS AND CASHIERS operate cash registers and receive payment for goods purchased by customers or receive and bank takings and make payments. Skill Level: The entry requirement for this unit group is completion of compulsory secondary school education or higher qualification. Tasks Include: receiving goods selected by customers, registering and totaling prices on cash register processing payments for goods by cash, cheques, gift vouchers, credit or debit cards and other non-cash forms of payment issuing sales dockets and giving change processing mail and other payment types and arranging banking counting and recording money received and balancing against register sales records recording and balancing petty cash disbursements
Appendix 2. A Personnel Specification
PREFERRED PERSONAL TRAITS AND SKILLS
Checkout operators should be friendly, polite and quick with dealing with customers. They need to have some basic cash-handling and mathematical skills. Being observant helps, as products may sometimes be priced wrongly or dishonest customers may have switched the price tags of goods. Checkout operators also need to be honest as they deal with large amounts of cash daily. A smart appearance and the ability to stand for long hours are important.
QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED
Educational attainment at least high school graduate, must be 18 years old and above, must hold a PMR certificate, no previous criminal record.
Appendix 3: Advertising the Position Here is the proposed budget plan for the advertisement: For two consecutive Sundays: A 1/8 page advertisement on Sunday Herald and Sunday Times A one-week advertisement on Herald and Time: i/8 page each (seven times) Costing: 7,500 poundsFollowing is a sample letter that can be used to advertise a checkout operator opening:
Date: November 11, 2003
TO: Newspapers, Magazines and Dailies
FROM: Derby Retailer Store
Human Resource Personnel Officer
Please place the following ad in your paper __________ (dates). Any questions can be answered by ___________(Human Resource Personnel Officer), _______________ Derby Retailer Store, ___________ (phone number). Please bill the advertisement to the Finance Department.
CHECKOUT PERSONNEL ASSISTANT:
37 hours per week (must be willing to work on weekends with pay). Duties: operate cash registers and receive payment for goods purchased by customers or receive, bank takings and make payments, and receiving goods selected by customers, registering and totaling prices on cash register processing payments for goods by cash, cheques, gift vouchers, credit or debit cards. Minimum qualifications: High school graduate, preferably with two year's experience as a checkout operator and/or training. Salary: 5.25 pounds/hour. Apply until ______ (date) at _______________ Derby Retailer Store.
Compliance with the legal requirements (UK discrimination laws) Job discrimination laws were enacted in the UK precisely because of the unemployment level of minorities and disabled. For instance, Thomas (1998) noted that the excess ethnic minority unemployment in the UK can be explained by minorities having relatively inflated job aspirations, making them more likely to eschew jobs that white people find acceptable.There is an over riding requirement for retailers like us to comply with the discrimination laws in UK regarding the employment of minorities and the disabled. Thus, there will be no discriminatory clause in the recruitment and the selection of personnel in any way be it implied or otherwise. We conform to the anti-discrimination laws in UK pertaining to the employment of minorities, the disabled, women and several others. Furthermore, we subscribe to the fairness of the selection and contends that the applicants will be employed on the basis of their competency and their suitability for the job.
This commitment can be manifested in the job advertisements for check-out operators and in the selection criteria for hiring. Furthermore, this anti-discrimination clause is also an evidence of the company’s corporate social responsibility in helping and developing the workforce in UK regardless of certain demographic variables other than those concerned with their competencies.
Evaluation of the ProcedureAssessing outcomes of the recruitment is critical to systematic improvement of recruitment effectiveness in the company. This shall benefit the company in three ways: (1) it can assess the strengths and weaknesses of the recruitment process for future improvements; (2) it can provide an impetus for action in terms of cost measurement in recruitment (cost analysis and the best measure of lowering the cost of the recruitment process and; (3) in determining the productivity of the newly hired checkout operators.
For organizations to pursue systematic, sustained improvement in recruitment effectiveness, a new approach to the assessment of recruitment outcomes is necessary. I believe a practical approach to recruitment evaluation can be achieved (a) by isolating and evaluating attraction outcomes, (b) by directly assessing the job performance potential of each applicant, and then (c) applying utility analysis methods to convert differences in applicants' job performance potential to a dollar metric. This final step produces an estimate of the benefits of alternative attraction activities that can be compared to their costs.
Assessing Attraction Outcomes: A Step-by-Step Overview
Step 1. Identify positions to assess.
Description: Organizations may choose not to develop scores to evaluate recruitment outcomes for all positions. Those positions where assessment of attraction outcomes is likely to be of greatest value are jobs that generate several new hires and attract large numbers of applicants.
Step 2. Identify current screening mechanism and determine current assessment properties.
Description: Organizations need to identify the current selection mechanism. In some organizations, screening devices are not formalized. In these cases, efforts should be made to identify the true character of the screening device as it currently exists.
Step 3. Determine strategy for adapting current screening device to produce scores for each applicant and adapt changes.
Description: Depending on what screening device is currently used, the amount of deviation between current practices and the development of scores for each applicant with the desired properties will vary. Organizations need to decide how far they want to go toward developing measures that yield scores with optimal properties. In most instances, it is likely to be more effective for organizations to develop measures over a series of iterations aimed at working toward desired score properties. Doing so is likely to minimize costs.
Step 4. Assess attraction outcomes.
Description: Assess each applicant using the device developed in Step 3. Scores for all applicants in the applicant pool in batch recruiting should be evaluated. In continuous recruiting, all applicants, including those that have left the pool by withdrawing themselves from consideration or because they were hired, during the appropriate time period (defined by the organization) should be included. Data from the analysis of applicant flows for each position should be archived in order to facilitate comparisons across recruiting events.
Step 5. Match recruitment activities to recruitment phases and estimate recruitment costs.
Description: In order to evaluate the cost effectiveness of various recruitment practices, recruitment costs must be identified and mapped to the appropriate phase of recruitment (i.e., attraction, status maintenance, gaining job acceptance). Estimate costs of attraction by identifying all activities primarily designed to influence the attraction of applicants to this position, not general recruitment costs. The cost of general recruitment activities--those not attributable to a specific position--could be evaluated against all positions that are influenced by those activities.
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