Introduction
Employers use recruitment to find and hire people to fill open positions; employer branding is an essential part of the recruitment process to attract and retain employees. Through the hiring process, companies can investigate and strengthen their brand identity. The employer’s responsibility is to make an excellent first impression on potential employees and the community in which it works. The recruitment process has a great deal of strategic significance. A company’s success relies on its competence in attracting and retaining top talent. The paper provides reports for different companies on their recruitment and employer branding approaches.
Apple Inc and its Recruitment Processes
History and Summary of its Recruitment Process
The company has, in recent times, taking affirmative action to ensure that within the organization and in its recruitment process, there are equal opportunities for all of its applicants that do not have biases in color, race, sexual orientation, gender, and origin (Azamov, 2020). This policy has no exceptions since the company does not tolerate applications that conduct comparisons with the other candidates for open positions. Aptitude tests, in-person interviews, and onboarding are part of the hiring process.
The company wants to ensure that the people it hires have undergone a thorough screening procedure and can adapt to the company’s way of doing things rapidly. Apple Inc advertises most of its jobs on its website or through LinkedIn and Glassdoor (Azamov, 2020). The company, however, predominantly seeks employees and urges them to apply through its website. The organization considers individuals with a criminal record as it is confined within the law. For positions within the San Francisco area, the rules guide the organization concerning applications and having a criminal past coupled with the respective labor laws.
Positive Attributes of its Recruitment Process
Teamwork and Collaboration
For Apple Inc, every facet of the organization, irrespective of the line of business, is defined through action plans. From the action plans, one can have the job description for the respective employees that work for the organization. Each division has more or less similar highly specialized roles that form the organization’s more comprehensive strategy. Collaboration is essential in the organization. Employees from each business line are called upon to share their passion, be innovative, and be courageous in pushing their agendas (Azamov, 2020). The organization is highly hierarchical but has seamlessly gelled into the organizational culture, an open-door policy enabling employees to express their views at all times.
The job postings are highly detailed and give a detailed account of what is expected and needed from all the employees. Once they join, the employees’ expectations are known beforehand through recruitment processes (Ibrahim et al., 2019). Onboarding becomes a seamless process as everyone is well vast in their why and what they need to do to achieve the organization’s objectives. The organization is structured into functional specializations rather than business segments which are rare considering its size. There are experts in every realm, hardware experts and software experts, and design experts within the fold.
Diversity and Inclusion
The organization has increased its recruitment by a whopping 64%, translating to over 18,000 people, composing half of the workforce at Apple Inc. The organization has made extensive strides in having inclusive leadership within the organization (Azamov, 2020). The organization appreciates the current intricacies plaguing the United States, such as racial inequality. URCs within the United States fill 43% of the leadership roles, 29% of the research and development managerial positions are filled by URCs, and 37% and 26% by women in leadership and R&D leadership roles. Apple Inc came up with the Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, which is commendable (Azamov, 2020). The organization, through such projects, has gained increased brand equity, with more and more individuals from minority groups wanting to work for the brand and increase its revenue and market share. It has also seen an uptake in consumers from leading such initiatives.
Netflix and Google and their Recruitment Processes
History and Summary of its Recruitment Process
Netflix and Google have extensively been led through a hierarchical structure with extensive modifications that cater to flexibility and innovation and ensure a high level of effectiveness within their business environment, considering their level of dynamism. The recruitment process is mainly through its website and the employment of social media such as LinkedIn, indeed, among others (Van Rooyen & Pathak, 2021). The organization boasts of a comprehensive platform allowing individuals within the entity to change and/or modify their roles to meet the business needs aptly. Because of this, the organization employs an exciting yet unique job advert that does not limit its employees to the job description. The company is digitally inclined to owe its market niche and digital core business.
The companies tie all their processes and activities to their vision and mission. The same is entrenched in the strategic goals of the organization. Job positions are directly aligned to the company’s goals, making them highly broad and encompassing various facets not limited to the expertise of the personnel expected to fill in the position. Most vacant positions are first internally circulated to fill them from within before spreading externally through its website and other platforms such as LinkedIn (Kanagavalli et al., 2019). The interviews are rigorous with out-of-the-box questions and have individuals within the company take on real-life work scenarios and deal with the given systems.
Positive Attributes of its Recruitment Process
Goes Beyond Expertise
Netflix has a U-form type of organizational structure that centers on hierarchy, and its prominent role is to maintain executive direction coupled with control of the entire franchise. The system is designed to have zero lapses or gaps within it. Every step is done through the approval of management to make the expected return (Van Rooyen & Pathak, 2021). The recruitment process goes beyond expertise and seeks to have individuals with high levels of integrity working within the organization. For this reason, any new employee working for the organization is taken through the code of ethics, which entails behaviors employees are expected to perform during onboarding.
The code of ethics is also available on its website for its employees, where employees are expected to own up to their mistakes and discuss the best possible solution with fellow employees. Google allows its employees to innovate and carry out tasks within a flexible environment that fosters collaboration and, at the same time, seeks to create a different era in the workspace setup (Ibrahim et al., 2019). Employees are not expected to dawn official attire when conducting their various roles because the primary objective is to propel output and increase the company’s yield.
Specialization and Control
There are three main aspects to the workings at Netflix outlined in its corporate structure: functional, divisional, and geographical divisions, each assigned its tasks. The recruitment process clarifies how their functions are tied to the goals and objectives of the organization (Ibrahim et al., 2019). It seeks to give a detailed account of what to do and when to do it as the company aims to make the maximum amount of revenue from its activities. The recruitment process is straightforward and extensive, and once the personnel is recruited, it becomes a relatively simple process to incorporate into the organization thoroughly. Netflix conducts its operations uniquely for the organization and the employees that work in it (Van Rooyen & Pathak, 2021). The companies have, over time, been able to readjust and re-modify the much-needed changes as it seeks to be a dominant force in the market. The uptake of the product offered by the organization has led to numerous changes as it aims to remain unmatched in the sector.
Amazon Inc and its Recruitment Processes
History and Summary of its Recruitment Process
The organization undertakes four steps in the recruitment process notably; online application, assessment, phone interview, and an in-person interview. The website is full of information that can guide one of their interview processes on interviewing at Amazon (Kodiyan, 2019). The warehouse is at the organization’s core, giving a detailed account of the job positions and what is required. Its website has numerous job descriptions and many available posts, making it a prominent employment creator in the United States.
Areas that Require Improvements to the Recruitment Process
Netflix and Google have extensively been led through a hierarchical structure with extensive modifications that cater to flexibility and innovation and ensure a high level of effectiveness within their business environment, considering their level of dynamism. The recruitment process is mainly through its website and the employment of social media (Ibrahim et al., 2019). The organization boasts of a comprehensive platform that allows individuals within the entity to change and or modify their roles to meet the business needs aptly. Because of this, the organization employs an exciting yet unique job advert that does not limit its employees to the job description. The company is digitally inclined to owe its market niche and digital core business.
The company’s online portal for jobs takes too long to change the application status considering the lengthy recruitment process. Amazon has been accused numerous times of taking too long a time in recruiting personnel (Kodiyan, 2019). The application status can lag for months before the status changes and the corresponding application is archived. Amazon predominantly seeks to recruit personnel through its website and does not use social media platforms. The negative attributes of its recruitment process have harmed the organization’s branding.
Solutions for the Recruitment Process
The organization must outsource certain facets of its recruitment process to a consulting firm and focus on core facets. Job positions such as finance, advertising, and marketing can be acquired or recruited through a consulting firm (Kanagavalli et al., 2019). Such work positions are the same across the board, and as such, a consulting firm can easily choose an individual that is best suited for the organization through it. Companies explore and enhance their brand position through recruitment (Kodiyan, 2019). It is not only the organization that must impress the employees; it is the employer’s job to impress those looking for a job and the community it operates. The same will lead to fewer lags and time lost in focusing on the recruitment of employees and more of that time spent on the organization’s core functions.
The company also needs to extensively use a referral program internally to get employees in the company as the existing employees will be able, through experience, to nominate individuals that they feel are best suited for the jobs. To increase its already budding brand recognition, Amazon can employ social media platforms for dynamic positions to lure in more consumers (Kodiyan, 2019). The website is seen to be too scientific and bureaucratic in facilitating the recruitment process of employees. The same has led to many bottlenecks, and most applicants are highly dissatisfied with the process.
Conclusion
The branding of a company and the hiring process are intertwined. Organizations cannot do both simultaneously because the perception of consumers and the community begins with the recruitment process. Organizations that take this to heart are better placed to do well than those who choose not to ignore such components. Companies with robust extensive yet simplified recruitment tend to get good employees. Companies that decide not to do so often end up with employees who do not go beyond what is expected and only do what is required. Therefore, it is paramount that organizations seek alternatives to the typical recruitment process that many organizations necessitate going beyond the norm.
References
Azamov, D. (2020). Apple Employee Motivation policies. Young Scientists, 50.
Ibrahim, W. M. R. W., & Hassan, R. (2019). Recruitment trends in the industry 4.0 using artificial intelligence: Pro and cons. Asian Journal of Research in Business and Management, 1(1), 16-21.
Kanagavalli, G., Seethalakshmi, R., & Sowdamini, T. (2019). A systematic review of literature on the recruitment and selection process. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 7(2), 01-09.
Kodiyan, A. A. (2019). An overview of ethical issues in using AI systems in hiring with Amazon’s AI-based hiring tool case study. Researchgate Preprint.
Van Rooyen, J., & Pathak, A. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on big and small tech companies. Journal of Human Resource Management, 9(2), 33-38.