Introduction
When an organization seeks to accomplish its goals of performance excellence and competitive advantage, it is only natural that it should pay particular attention to the selection of qualified professionals as employees. Indeed, in the contemporary world of competitive economies and innovative organizations, human resources and talent are regarded as the most valuable asset. For that matter, it is essential for an organization working in a health and social care setting to recruit the most relevant personnel capable of complying with organizational requirements and driving the company toward its goals. This paper is designed to outline the impact that legislative and regulatory requirements and agreement regulations have on selection and recruitment, as well as the circumstances when professional recruiters should be involved. It is claimed that compliance with all the regulations and organizational goals should be essential in the process of employee selection and recruitment to ensure that health and social care teams are effective and reliable.
Factors Impacting the Selection and Recruitment Processes
Legislative Requirements
Since the process of candidate selection and recruitment involves the collision of the interests of two parties, namely candidates and organizations, it is essential to ensure that proper legislative regulations are followed. In particular, organizations are liable to provide discrimination-free recruitment procedures, as well as ensure that the rights of candidates are not violated. As for the candidates, they are eligible to have proper qualifications, education, and licensure due to their work in the health and social work field of high responsibility. For that matter, compliance with specific legal documents and their specific provisions is expected.
Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act of 2010 is a legal document that regulates discrimination in the field of employment. For an organization to follow the Equality Act’s guidelines, it should ensure that the selection and recruitment stages of employment are conducted without any discrimination against vulnerable social groups. According to Berghs et al. (2019), equality in employment is “a matter of justice, equality, and rights, which should be established as equitable norms rather than an aspiration associated with equality of opportunity” (p. 1037). Thus, people with disabilities, ethnic and racial minorities, the elderly, women, and other populations should be given equal opportunities and conditions for employment.
Criminal Record Checks – Disclosure and Barring Service 2012
While underrepresented groups are encouraged to be provided with equal opportunities for employment, special legislative regulations are applied to the selection and recruitment of candidates with criminal records. Since healthcare and social work settings provide services to vulnerable groups of people, workers with a criminal history might bear a risk of harming the served populations. For that matter, Disclosure and Barring Service requires criminal record checks of all applicants for healthcare or social work positions. As stated by Norrie et al. (2019), “organizations providing regulated social care services, therefore, must restrict entry for those with certain, very serious, criminal records and ask all applicants to disclose convictions or cautions through the Disclosure and Barring Service” (p. 2). Thus, an organization should be diligent in conducting checks prior to recruiting a candidate.
The General Data Protection Regulation 2018
When collecting data from candidates, an organization should be cautious with using and disclosing it not to violate the privacy and confidentiality of applicants’ data. Indeed, in the era of digitalization, data protection is an essential element in the employment sphere due to the risks of privacy violations and harm caused to individuals (Hoofnagle et al., 2019). In this regard, organizations comply with the General Data Protection Regulations of 2018, which holds that the personal data of employees should be properly protected by the organizations that use such data. Indeed, “companies that use personal data must vet service providers and impose contractual limits on data use” (p. 68). For that matter, entities working with applicants’ information must guarantee and demonstrate their responsibility for protecting sensitive data.
Regulatory Requirements
Given the abovementioned legislative requirements, a healthcare or social work organization should compile a set of procedures and practices that would regulate the step-by-step recruitment process. Such a process should be controlled by responsible bodies inside the organization and supported by internal documentation outlining the proper actions of company representatives. In particular, specific human resource management policies aimed at an equal, fair, transparent, and rigorous process of candidate selection and recruitment should be developed and followed (Pessach et al., 2020). Such regulations are essential for complying with laws and allowing for organizational consistency in human resource management.
Professional Codes
In terms of complying with internal organizational goals, the process of selection and recruitment theorized in the regulatory documents should be practically conducted following the guidelines of the professional codes. For example, the healthcare setting requires well-prepared employees possessing specific skills, knowledge, education level, competencies, and licensure. Moreover, they should have personal characteristics of stress-coping, resilience, empathy, commitment, productivity, and others, which are essential for their high-quality performance and long-term contribution to the organization (Nilsen et al., 2020). Thus, an organization should use proper interviewing techniques with questions that involve professional knowledge testing, ethical considerations, and personality tests. Such a holistic and well-planned approach will allow for eliminating the risks of employing the wrong candidate and minimize cost losses.
Agreed Ways of Working
Furthermore, when employing a candidate, an organization must provide disclosed information about the setting, schedule, reward and recognition, social support, and performance duties that characterize a candidate’s work. The agreement in the ways of work must comply with the legal regulations and ensure that employees’ rights are not violated (Berghs et al., 2019). Such information is impactful on the process of selection and recruitment because it might be a factor for a candidate’s agreement or disagreement to work. For that matter, clear descriptions of positions and expected duties and requirements should be presented, as well as regulatory human resource management policies disclosed to candidates to ensure informed consent to employment on both parties.
Circumstances when Selection and Recruitment Specialists Are Required
Commonly, organizations working in the health and social care fields might be able to conduct selection and recruitment procedures independently by means of their internal human resource management departments. However, when specialists with particular skills are required, the services of professional recruitment agencies might be outsourced (Nilsen et al., 2020). In particular, in the healthcare or social work setting, specialists with a strictly required licensure, expertise, skills, and experience, such as surgeons or physicians, might be difficult to find via conventional means of recruitment available to a healthcare organization. In this regard, professional recruiters will be helpful in identifying reliable sources of selection and using relevant methods to recruit the best candidates.
Conclusion
In summation, selection and recruitment are the stepping stones of employment processes, which are particularly important in the fields of healthcare or social work. The quality of skills, knowledge, education, and expertise of candidates predetermines the overall organizational outcomes. For that matter, an organization should strive to perfect its human resource policies and regulations while complying with legal requirements to ensure fair and transparent employment.
References
Berghs, M., Atkin, K., Hatton, C., & Thomas, C. (2019). Do disabled people need a stronger social model: A social model of human rights?. Disability & Society, 34(7-8), 1034-1039.
Hoofnagle, C. J., Van Der Sloot, B., & Borgesius, F. Z. (2019). The European Union general data protection regulation: What it is and what it means. Information & Communications Technology Law, 28(1), 65-98.
Nilsen, P., Seing, I., Ericsson, C., Birken, S. A., & Schildmeijer, K. (2020). Characteristics of successful changes in health care organizations: An interview study with physicians, registered nurses and assistant nurses. BMC Health Services Research, 20, 1-8.
Norrie, C., Bramley, S., & Manthorpe, J. (2019). New starts: A scoping review of literature on people with criminal records working in social care – current practice and potential for recruitment. Web.
Pessach, D., Singer, G., Avrahami, D., Ben-Gal, H. C., Shmueli, E., & Ben-Gal, I. (2020). Employees recruitment: A prescriptive analytics approach via machine learning and mathematical programming. Decision Support Systems, 134, 113290.