Mecanismos constitucionales de participación dirigidos a la defensa del ambiente

Staff recruitment can be defined as the “practices and activities carried out by the organisation with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees” (Barber 1998, p.5). Approximately a decade later, the recruitment of staff has grown into a strategic function for most organisations. As Orlitzky (2007) explains, staff recruitment is no longer only the attraction and selection of people to fill vacancies but rather finding the right kind of people from the most appropriate source using an effective communication strategy. Thus strategic recruitment should not stop at attracting the right people but also investing in them by training and education to achieve employee satisfaction and commitment (Huang, Huang & Chiu 2011). Essentially, companies need to strive to recruit talent that will help them stay competitive (Griffin & Moorhead 2011; Ryan & Delany 2010; Snell & Bohlander 2012). Since the environment in which organisations operate is

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constantly changing (Nikandrou & Panayotopoulou 2012), the recruitment function should be tailored towards the hiring of the right people to help meet both the strategic short-term and long-term corporate goals (Holbeche 2013). Consequently, there is the need for precision in the selection of staff amidst the changing business environment and growing globalisation of labour (Taran & Geronimi 2003; Warner 2002). This need is even more relevant in the shipping industry due to flag state regulations and other institutional practices (Progoulaki & Theotokas 2010; Stopford 2009; Wright 2012). For example, regulations and institutional practices such as the poaching of officers make the seafarer labour market more volatile (Lobrigo & Pawlik 2015; Magramo et al. 2010b).

To achieve the needed accuracy in staff selection for organisations, the past 100 years have witnessed the emergence and application of scientific psychological principles to address recruitment challenges (Vinchur & Bryan 2012). Recruitment is an activity that comes with the risk of selecting inappropriate talent (Harvard Business Review 2011; Rath 2011). The selection of unsuitable people may lead to increased administrative cost for organisations. For instance, managers may not be aware that people recruited through referrals are less likely to leave the organisation compared to those sourced through job ads. High mobility which has severe cost implications has been reported among the latter category of job applicants (Rynes, Brown & Colbert 2002). Hence, strategies are needed by firms to improve the selection of potential employees to avoid unnecessary costs associated with the wrong matching of candidates to jobs (Larson et al. 1998). Another argument is that efforts must be made to ensure an effective recruitment system since the way an organisation recruits can influence employee performance and turnover rates (Breaugh 2012).

Recruitment as an organisational exercise can be triggered by two main phenomena: the movement of existing staff to another company or industry (Arthur 2001) and business growth (expansion) which may lead to the creation of new departments, mergers and acquisitions and entry into new markets (Collings &

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Scullion 2012). All these may precipitate the need for replenishment of an organisation’s human resource base. Firms need to devise effective recruitment strategies toward the seamless supply of talent given the increase in competition for skilled labour within the global labour markets (Wilden, Gudergan & Lings 2010). Abella (2006) maintains that the competition for skilled labour relatively differs in intensity on an industry-by-industry basis. This may be due to the prevailing labour shortage – which could be the result of a low number of entrants or a high turnover rate among employees(Cappelli 2005). It is argued in Holland, Sheehan and De Cieri (2007) that in industries where the shortage of skilled labour is on the rise, organisations need to have a strategy that gives pre-eminence to the deployment of human resource development as a tool for competition. The understanding is that skilled labour scans the market for options (organisations) that appear attractive, especially within the pharmaceuticals, construction and information technology sectors where there are shortages in the supply of skilled labour (Holbeche 2013).Consequently, industries such as seafaring whose image may be less attractive are struggling to attract young people in developed nations (McLaughlin 2012).

For organisations to be successful in their competition for skilled talent, they will need to rely on effective labour recruitment practices and strategies. Over the past two decades, research literature on staff recruitment has portrayed what should be deemed an ideal recruitment strategy for organisations in the attraction and selection of staff (Hiltrop 1999; Hurrell & Scholarios 2011; Larson et al. 1998; Rothwell 2010; Schweyer 2004). Even though most of these strategies are being exploited by organisations, implementation gaps exist due to the misgivings human resource practitioners have about research findings on staff selection (Ryan & Tippins 2004; Rynes, Brown & Colbert 2002). Thus, research on recruitment may not necessarily be accepted by human resource managers. This might have given birth to the differences in hiring practices across industries (Orlitzky 2007).

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To stay competitive by attracting skilled labour in a highly globalised world, researchers have developed a diverse range of theories that can be employed by companies (Breaugh 2008; Holland, Sheehan & De Cieri 2007). Over the last decade, the concept of employer branding is touted as a strategic tool that relies on psychological, economic and functional reward systems to guarantee organisations access to skilled employees (Branham 2001; Thorne 2004). According to Phillips and Edwards (2009), employer branding may primarily transform organisations into an employer-of-choice; a kind of talent magnet (Robak 2007). This will mean an adjustment in certain practices and norms to change the external perceptions of people about a particular company. Even though a conventional marketing concept, employer branding has gained popularity in human resource practice with almost seven in ten organisations reporting to using it as a strategy to gain the loyalty of existing employees and access to skilled applicants (Holbeche 2013). Understanding the expectations of potential staff is crucial to the success of any employer branding strategy adopted by an organisation. With an increasing trend in outsourcing of the recruitment function however (Susomrith & Brown 2013), ascertaining the aspirations of potential employees might become a tricky issue for human resource managers. Thus it is becoming increasingly important that the recruitment and selection process is tailored to gather information on candidates to adequately understand their expectations and simultaneously project an attractive image of the organisation to job candidates (Holbeche 2013).

Aside from employer branding, other writers (such as Berry & Parasuraman 1992; Papasolomou-Doukakis 2003) also advocate the application of internal marketing principles (which also forms part of the image branding marketing theories) for the recruitment and management of company staff. In this approach, firms are encouraged to focus on high employee satisfaction and motivation as a means of ensuring good customer service and attracting potential employees. There are other researchers (see for example, Drake, Gulman & Roberts 2005; Varey & Lewis 2000) who strengthened the case for internal marketing by suggesting that, it improves business performance and employer branding and builds employee

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loyalty. Perhaps this assertion of the dual role of internal marketing demonstrates an existing link between staff recruitment and retention. Research (such as Clayton 2006; Laura 2010; Rothwell 2005, 2009, 2010; Rothwell & Kazanas 2003) suggests the existence of a relationship between the hiring and retention of people. Chapter three of this thesis further explores the nature of the relationship between these two human resource activities.

The foregoing discussions on staff recruitment appear to highlight certain key issues relevant to achieving effective hiring practices among organisations. It is important to understand how these issues are being applied in the shipping industry to identify any differences in the general human resource approach and what is practised among shipping industry employers. The next section focuses on the environment in which seafarers are recruited, the recruitment process and practices and the lapses in recruitment practices among shipping industry employers.