Beijing Sifang Automation Co

Beijing Sifang Automation Co., Ltd (Sifang), which was founded in 1994, is a high-tech enterprise mainly engaged in R&D and Manufacture of power system protection relay devices and automatic control systems. These products have also been widely applied to other industries such as petrochemical, railway, coal and metallurgy in China. The company has 10 filiales and over 1000 employees. Professor Qixun Yang, the board chairman of the company, is not only an academician of Chinese Academy Engineering (CAE) but also a professor of North China Electric Power University. As a leader of the power system automatic protection field in China, he has many patents which are applied in Sifang.

After graduation from North China Electric Power University, I entered in the marketing department of Sifang as a project staff. One year later, I was promoted to project manager. My responsibility was by using the ERP system to ensure the proper direction of the project at all times, kept all project members on track and make sure communication was taking place on all levels, to understand the basics and develop a workable solution, and interpret all types of user requests and translate them into necessary project goals.

2. The recruitment process of Sifang Barber’s (1998) definition of recruitment is that “Recruitment includes those practices and activities carried on by the organisation, or on its behalf with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees.”. Businesses like Sifang recruit staff for a variety of reasons, such as the growth of the business, resignation, retirement, dismissal and so on. Sifang’s recruitment focus mainly on external environment such as universities, related research institutes, various enterprises in power industries, and foreign companies. The following flow chart shows the process of recruitment in Sifang.

The Sifang’s HR department will begin to prepare for recruitment immediately when vacancies appear. It is one of the most important responsibilities in HR department. The preparation includes making job description and person specifications because the company needs to be very clear on the job requirements and ensure what the kind of person they are looking for. After the above step, recruitment advertisements will be appeared on trade newspapers, trade journals and also on the company’s website in order to attract someone who interest in the jobs. In addition, the recruitment information will also be sent to some universities career service.

Applicants can download application forms from the company’s website, and even filling the application forms online. And then, Sifang HR department will make a shortlist through identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the job applications, CVs which are sent by applicants. The standard used in shortlisting will be justifiable in terms of the job, have objective validity and apply equally to all candidates. Making shortlist is the first step on the selection process which based on the requirements of the job description and person specification. The applicants who are ineligible will be taken off from list.

After the shortlist creates, a selection interview will be arranged for the final candidates. Selection interview is most important in the recruitment process of Sifang because it can give an insight into the candidates’ ability. It also allows the company to judge the candidate’s motive, personality and behavior, evaluate the relevance of their qualifications and experience, and provide the candidates with further information about the organisation and the job role involved. As a rule, managers of HR department and the candidate’s future managers will attend as interviewers.

In the next program, for a healthy factor, a physical examination will be given to the candidates who pass selection interview. After that, candidates will experience a three month probation time with training. In the period, their factual ability will be examined. The candidates’ department manager will transfer the feedback to the HR department. In the end, if the HR department feel satisfied with the candidates, agreements will be signed between them.

Firstly, after the recruitment is implemented, basic information will be entered by job applicants such as home addresses, ID numbers and so on. When an applicant is selected and hired, the above information will already be in the company system. This will allow new employees to get email accounts and access other services more quickly. In addition, managers will have much more data available for reporting and workforce planning.

Secondly, another advantage of Sifang’s recruitment is the three months probation time which provides the company a viable, effective chance to reassess candidates. Last but not the least, face-to-face interview allows a certain assessment to be made that can not be established in any other way (Torrington and Hall, 1995). Interview creates a public relation between both parts. It gives the candidates the opportunity to ask the interviewers any questions, such as information about the working hours and contract negotiation. On the other hand, it allows recruiters to answer the candidates’ questions, and increase the perceived attractiveness of the job.

The recruitment process can be very costly. It takes a great deal of time to set up an effective recruitment process. Therefore, there is considerable scope along the way for waste and inefficiency. And then, the major negative issues concerning the part of interview are related to its unreliability, invalidity and subjectivity (Torrington and Hall, 1995). Some perceptual errors may be made in the interview, which include stereotyping, halo effect, discrimination and so forth (Barclay, 1999).

A candidate may feel discriminated against because of his/her disability in the part of physical examination. In addition, the company may neglect a better channel to recruits staff which is a job agency. Job agency is experienced in providing certain types of staffs and they may already have an existing bank of potential employees which can then be matched to specific requirements of a client.