Southwood School: A Case Study in Recruitment and Selection
By Fiona L. Robson

Purpose
This case helps you understand the complexities involved in effective recruitment and selection.
This fi ctionalized case study is based on a real organization. The case is set in a school, but many of the issues are the same across different countries and sectors.
The author of this case was the HR manager in the organization.
Setting

Industry: UK public sector, education (a mixed comprehensive secondary school).

Size: The annual revenue of the organization is more than £1 million,but it is a government-funded, nonprofi t organization.

Staff Size: 120 employees (80 teaching and 40 non-teaching).

Student Body: More than 800 students aged 13-18.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this case, you will learn to:

¦ Articulate why recruitment and selection is important to organizations.

¦ Explain the importance of equal opportunity and how this should be emphasized throughout training for employees involved in recruitment and selection.

¦ Appreciate the need for appropriate selection activities and how to design programs accordingly.

¦ Recognize the importance of reviewing recruitment and selection processes.

Overview
Southwood School experienced increased employee turnover, and as a result, a higher level of recruitment activity. This case explores the recruitment and selection strategies used by the school. The fi rst part of the case study introduces the system that was initially used and concludes by identifying some of the system's weaknesses. 2 © 2008 Society for Human Resource Management. Fiona L. Robson The second part of the case study discusses the improvements that were made following a system review by the HR manager.
PART I

Recruitment
For many years, Southwood relied on a single recruitment method: to advertise all teaching positions in a specialist newspaper publication called TES (Times Educational Supplement). Basic advertisements were placed in this publication one time, and interested candidates were instructed to contact the school to request an application package.
The application package included the following information:

¦ A letter detailing how to apply for the job.

¦ A brochure about the school.

¦ An application form.

Additional information was sometimes enclosed, but this depended on the department head advertising the vacancy. Additional information could include:

¦ Information about the current staff in the department.

¦ Examples of departmental projects (e.g., the head of the French department included information about student exchanges and visits to France that students and faculty had taken).

¦ A copy of the school development plan for the next three years. Other schools in the area also used TES for recruitment, but in addition, they placed advertisements in a local newspaper and on a web site for teaching vacancies. Some schools even launched a page on their school web site to enable candidates to download all of the application information.

Attachment:- case_study_recruitment_and_selection.rar