A study on the impact of recruitment

process on organisational performance: A

case study of KPMG Oman
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION- ......................................................................................................................... 3

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT OR RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY-.............................................. 3

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................ 3

4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................... 4

5. LITERATURE REVIEW- .............................................................................................................. 4

A. CONCEPTUAL REVIEW ............................................................................................................. 4

B. RESEARCH REVIEW .................................................................................................................. 4

6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................... 6

A. Research Design ............................................................................................................................. 6

B. Sampling Design ............................................................................................................................ 7

Sampling Method and Technique ....................................................................................................... 7

Target sample and population details /sample size ............................................................................. 7

C. Data Design .................................................................................................................................... 7

Data collection methods ...................................................................................................................... 8

D. Questionnaire design ...................................................................................................................... 8

Variables used ..................................................................................................................................... 8

Type of questionnaires – ..................................................................................................................... 8

E. Data Analysis design ...................................................................................................................... 9

Scales used .......................................................................................................................................... 9

Data Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 9

Timeplan and budget........................................................................................................................... 9

References:........................................................................................................................................ 11

2|Page
1. INTRODUCTION
The manner in which the firm designs the human resource management policies, particularly
the recruitment practices defines how the organisation performs (French, 2010). The
argument relates to work practices broadly, but the key is the recruitment process and its
approach and efficacy which defines the workforce capabilities. There are other facets of
training, mentoring in terms of aiding employee knowledge, skills, competencies which is
again dependent on the re recruitment technique to measure employee performance outcomes
for the organisation (Hiltrop, 1996). Human resource management practices can help to
source the best of the employees to be inducted into the workforce and be a part of the
organisation’s competitive strategy. Human resource management practices This research
hence will try to focus on the recruitment function and its impact on the organisational
performance. The company chosen is KPMG which is a consulting firm, that requires
employees with superlative skills, competencies in order to serve other Omani firms as a part
of their service.

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT OR RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

The research on the recruitment function to aid the HRM process has shifted from the
elemental and functional issues to more strategic level (Wright et al. 2003). The firm KPMG
has defined human resource policies, and a definitive approach to link systems approach of
input and performance. The dependent variable is the ‘firm performance’ that can be defined
as productivity of the workforce contribution which is directly linked to the employee intake
‘recruitment’ process. The issue is pertinent as KPMG is a consulting firm which has
expertise knowledge in range of business domains that benefits the clients. Here, knowledge
is the only source of competence which is an asset for the employees working in KPMG. The
choice of recruitment and selection strategy that is embedded in the human capital approach,
in the task of inducting the best employee therefore is affecting the firm level performance
(Guest and Conway, 2011). The issue is important as Oman industries are likely to be
benefitted with KPMG advisory services which in long term creates competitive advantage
for the nation amidst the MiddleEast countries.

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Q 1. What are the current recruitment strategies and practices followed by KPMG in Oman?

3|Page
Q 2. What are the recruitment philosophies, approaches and goals in KPMG?

Q 3.How does the recruitment process impact the employee contribution to the overall
organizational performance in KPMG?

Q 4. What are the gaps and best practices for enhancing the current recruitment processes in
KPMG?

4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 To recognize the current recruitment practices as per the HRM policy in KPMG
 To figure out the philosophy, approach and goals in KPMG recruitment process
 To interpret the impact that recruitment has on employee contribution towards the
overall organizational performance in KPMG
 To figure out the gaps and best practices in order to make recruitment effective for
attaining organisational performance.

5. LITERATURE REVIEW

A. CONCEPTUAL REVIEW
The employees in the workforce is the only mutable asset which contributes to the firm
processes, functioning. Recruitment is an essential function of identifying and drawing
potential human resources towards the organisation, which is followed by selection, training
processes (French, 2010). It is a dual matching procedure, between the requirement of jobs
versus job applicants, in the organization In IO (industrial organisational psychology) use of
psychometric tests are used, to test the candidate knowledge against the job description
(Wright et al. 2003). Therefore it is a mutual decision of the firm and the individual to take up
the offer of employment which will subsequently affect the journey of the employee and their
overall contribution to the performance of the organization.

B. RESEARCH REVIEW
French (2010) cited that Barney (1991) resource based theory, the capability of the
employees in providing a sustained competitive advantage in a company depends in the skill
pool. Based on this underpinning theory, the human capital investments which a firm
undertakes, start with defining the recruitment and selection process. The survival of the
organisation depends on the competence of the aggregate workforce that is directly related to
the workforce productivity leading to organisational performance. In order to attract the

4|Page
potential employees, who fits the criteria as per job description in a firm, the framework for
the recruitment strategy needs to be outlined at the firm level (Rasula et al. 2012). The ability
of the company to project the job description in the recruitment advertisement and the
selection stages is a test of potential which is a HRM practice. The quality in this approach
reflects in the employee performance that is either under-performing or over achieving the
individual targets in the company (Maletič et al. 2016). Therefore the importance of the
recruitment function in the firm that attracts large pool of prospective applicants to a job is
important to serve its function.

Darwish et al. (2013) argued that setting the employee expectations at the time of recruitment
prepares the candidate about the company norms and rules. This particularly pertinent as
highly skilled employee chosen may perform less as work environment, employee motivation
is not conducive. The discussion points to the failure of the recruitment strategy that has been
structured in a manner as it fails to meet the employee expectation set. Therefore superior
HRM practices in the recruitment function are important as organisations need to have more
control over the first stage of employee induction process. Theriou and Chatzoglou (2009)
added that organisational culture is important, while Breaugh and Starke (2000) highlighted
training to be most important for goal setting and its affect on individual or team productivity.
Cooper and Robertson (2009) outlined education level to be a criteria to establish recruitment
process effectiveness, while some jobs require experience to be a key to competence. Edward
and Rees (2007) argued that quality recruitment practices will ensure employees show
efficiency in production, lower absenteeism, lesser conflicts at work with management.
Maletič et al. (2016) stated that the efficacy of the recruitment process aiding is challenge as
large applications for vacancy is likely to happen and adopting socio-technical construct, the
use of technology in recruitment process serves the purpose. The employee filtering, resume
filtering softwares in the IT domain is likely to reduce time, effort and increase the process of
selecting the right candidate (Chapman and Webster, 2003).

Edward and Rees (2007) stated that post selection, the adoption of training programmes are
also important for grooming the employee to task, though clarifying the importance of it at
the recruitment stage serves the company rules and procedures to related to the setting
employee expectations. Quality in recruitment practices matters a lot as relaxation of rules, or
stringent rules to obtain a right candidate for a generalist or specialist position is a senior
level decision that machines cannot process (Galanki, 2002). Thus it is evident that IT has a
moderating impact on the organisational productivity in recruitment domain, though the key

5|Page
issue of attracting most competent employee changes with the range of skill-sets sought from
the labour market (Armstrong, 2008). This has become strategy as organisations seeking
newer skills to offer services to other firms, needs specific skill set of employees to aid the
process. Hence, organisations need to understand the key dimensions of recruitment as a
function (activities and outcomes against the goals) as the managers tend to equate the
outcomes of recruitment with that of organisational performance. Al-Bahussin and Elgaraihy
(2013) argues the management functions which are important for allowing the employee’s
capability to the highest level which stresses the firm HRM department in Saudi Arabia to
formalise the recruitment strategy which leads to firm profits.

The issue is a research gap as there is no substantial research study on a consulting firm in
Oman, as a country which enlightens on how recruitment impacts the organisational
performance.

6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design
The proposed research title of recruitment process in the firm and its impact on the
organisational performance is exploratory in nature. This is due to the fact that the research
problems is not clearly identified. The company KPMG, Oman does have a recruitment
process in place, but how it is impacting the organisational performance currently needs a
systematic research probe. The exploratory research uses the data collection process through
quantitative route to investigate the relation of variables in the research problem (Saunders et
al. 2009). The issue of HR sub process, that is recruitment can be linked to formation of
hypothesis to formulate the research enquiry process. The descriptive research is not
appropriate as in this topic the research needs to establish the relationship, with the variables.

The research philosophy for the current research is positivism that is applicable as the
intention is to test the variables indentified on the scientific grounds to test the data. The issue
is a part of business management domain which in positivism can be tested numerically in the
same manner to that of scientific research. The use of statistics which quantifies a data set
and finds the relationship can be done after collecting the data through survey (Saunders et al.
2009). Interpretivism is a research philosophy which relates to research phenomenon of
sharing, perception, opinion, experience that makes it ideal for studies in social setting for
developing new form of theories. The current research however will be testing the

6|Page
relationship of variables through a deductive process, and hence positivism research
philosophy is appropriate as against the interpretive philosophy.

The deductive research approach tests the already proven model, theories from general to
specific enquiry process, to test the variables in the current research setting to be accepted or
rejected. The literature review will synthesize the theories, from the past research narrowed
down to the topic of the research title.

B. Sampling Design

Sampling Method and Technique

The sampling is a technique that is used to get the representative of respondents from the
population (Kothari, 2012). The sampling methods is either probability or non-probability. In
this research, the respondents are the employees of the firm KPMG, Oman and the use of
simple random sampling process is used. This method allows the chances of each employee
from the total workforce to be chosen as a respondent without any bias. This is important for
the research as random selection of the employees, will help to cover the entire gamut of
response type making the research scope to increase.

The research also has another facet where the managers of KPMG, Oman can be interviewed
as per convenience sampling method. The availability of managers to respond is a situation
which the researcher needs to strategise with convenient sampling, so based on their
availability in the company, willingness to participate in the interview this sampling will be
used to get data.

Target sample and population details /sample size

The target sample size for understanding how recruitment impacts the organisational
performance for the employees is 55 people working in KPMG Oman. The managers
interview sample size is 5 based on their availability in KPMG Oman, preferably from HR
department, operations/finance department.

C. Data Design

7|Page
Data collection methods
The data collection method for the research chosen will comprise of mixed methods of
research. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used. Quantitative methods
collects numerical data that is linked to those variables which has been identified in
discussion of past researches in order to reach a measurable outcomes (Mackenzie & Knipe,
2006). The qualitative data is subjective data in the research , which is in-depth information
that requires deeper probing and analysed thematically in order to arrive to a conclusion.

Quantitative data collected by deploying a survey method in the respondent group, helps to
collect data faster. This is technique which will help the respond to assign or rate values to
the survey questions. The survey questionnaire can be designed in the Google forms, and
emailed to the HR manager of the KPMG Oman to be randomly distributed across
organisational hierarchy.

The qualitative data is subjective in nature which is obtained after interviewing the managers
of KPMG Oman. The questions of the interview is open ended and the deeper probing,
laddering type is used to clarify the research objectives. The mode will be telephonic or skype
interview as arranged by the HR manager for a twenty minute session over the phone for any
available manager on the research topic.

D. Questionnaire design

Variables used
The variables are identified from the discussion of the literature review. Over here, the
quality of recruitment will be probed and its sub variables which affect the organisational
profitability and production (performance) in a given year. This will be done separately for
the employees of KPMG and managers to be cross checked to understand if such practices or
measures are used in the firm.

Type of questionnaires
The questionnaires are the instruments which will be used for the survey. The closed ended
survey will be a structured close ended with the option to rate. The use of Likert scale to rate
an issue or a variable will be there. This is easier for the employees to rate, when they express
their judgement of any phenomenon being present or not present and to what extent they
found it, of such level. The use of survey questionnaire therefore will ask the employees to

8|Page
 find out if their expectations met the job description, and consequently yielded to
productivity.

The interview questions are open ended which is to probe deeper about the issue which the
managers need to answer. This will be elaborate about their practices, knowledge, views
about a research objective related issue.

E. Data Analysis design

Scales used
The use of Five point Likert scale will be used in the closed ended survey methodology
questionnaire. The standard description used for the above type is:

□strongly agree □ agree □ neither agree nor disagree □disagree □strongly disagree

Data Analysis
The analysis of the data is crucial for arriving at a conclusion for the above research. The
development of the two sets of questionnaires following two types qualitative and
quantitative will be done. The responses of the quantitative survey is coded and segregated in
the tabular form in Microsoft Excel sheet in order to be illustrated into graphs. The data is the
subjective responses which will be transcripted and then analysed to link to the research
objectives.

Timeplan and budget

Key research 1st 2nd - 3rd - 4th 4th -6th 6th - 8th 8th -10th 10th 12th
activities week 3rd week week week week -11th week
week week
Topic selection
Review of
literature
Research
methodology

Empirical data
collection

9|Page
Data interpretation
Data analysis and
findings
Conclusions and
Recommendation
Final submission

10 | P a g e
References
Al-Bahussin, S. A. and Elgaraihy, W. H. (2013) ‘The Impact of Human Resource
Management Practices, Organisational Culture, Organisational Innovation and Knowledge
Management on Organisational Performance in Large Saudi Organisations: Structural
Equation Modeling With Conceptual Framework’, International Journal of Business and
Management, 8(22).

Armstrong, M. (2008) Strategic Human Resource management. A Guide to Action. 4th ed.
London: Kogan Page Ltd.

Breaugh, J.A., and Starke, M.,(2000) “Research on Employee Recruitment: So Many

Studies, So Many Remaining Questions”, Journal of Management, Vol.26, pp. 405-434.

Chapman, D., and Webster, J.,(2003) “The Use of Technologies in Recruiting, Screening,
andSelection Processes for Candidates”, International Journal of Selection and
Assessment, Vol.11, No. 2/3, pp. 113-20
Cooper, D., and Robertson, I., (2009). Recruitment and selection: a framework for success.
8th Edition. Digital Press: Bradford.

Darwish, T. K., Singh, S. and Mohamed, A. F. (2013) ‘The role of strategic HR practices in
organisational effectiveness: an empirical investigation in the country of Jordan’,
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(17), pp. 3343–3362. doi:
10.1080/09585192.2013.775174.

Edward, T., and Rees, C., (2007)“Recruitment”, International Human Resource

Management, Pearson Education.
French, R. S. R. (2010) ‘Recruitment and Selection’, Leading, Managing and Developing
People, pp. 170–190. Available at:
www.cipd.co.uk/bookstore.%5Cnhttp://www.cipd.co.uk/nr/rdonlyres/01f95685-76c9-4c96-
b291-3d5cd4de1be5/0/9781843982579_sc.pdf.

Galanki, E., (2002) “The Decision to Recruit Online: a Descriptive Study,”

Career Development International, Vol. 7, No.4, pp. 243-51.
Guest, D. and Conway, N. (2011) ‘The impact of HR practices, HR effectiveness and a
“strong HR system” on organisational outcomes: A stakeholder perspective’, International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(8), pp. 1686–1702.

11 | P a g e
Hiltrop, J.-M. (1996) ‘The impact of human resource management on organisational
performance: Theory and research’, European Management Journal, 14(6), pp. 628–637.

Kothari, C. R. (2012). Research Methodology: An introduction. Research Methodology:

Methods and Techniques, IX, 418. http://doi.org/Goddard, W. & Melville, S.

Mackenzie, N., & Knipe, S. (2006). Research dilemmas: Paradigms, methods and
methodology. Issues in Educational Research, 16(2). http://doi.org/Retrieved from ERIC

Maletič, M. et al. (2016) ‘Effect of sustainability-oriented innovation practices on the overall

organisational performance: an empirical examination’, Total Quality Management and
Business Excellence, 27(9–10), pp. 1171–1190.

Rasula, J., Vuksic, V. B. and Stemberger, M. I. (2012) ‘The Impact of Knowledge

Management on Organisational Performance’, Economic and Business Review, 14(2), pp.
147–168.

Saunders, M. Lewis, P. Thornhill, A., (2009). Research methods for business students. 5th
Edition, Pearson: England.

Theriou, G. N. and Chatzoglou, P. D. (2009) ‘Exploring the best HRM practices‐performance

relationship: an empirical approach’, Journal of Workplace Learning, 21(8), pp. 614–646.

Wright, P. M., Gardner, T. M. and Moynihan, L. M. (2003) ‘The impact of HR practices on

the performance of business units’, Human Resource Management Journal, 13(3), pp. 21–36.

12 | P a g e
Appendix:

Q 1. What are the specific recruitment policies which you have faced in this company?

□ suitability

□ legality

□ transparency

□recruitment procedural fairness

Q 2. What is your perception about the recruitment process

□ Fair

□ Unfair

□ value added

□ Non value added

□ don’t know

Q 3. Have you faced any obstacles and challenges in the recruitment process in
KPMG?

□ Yes

□ No

Q 4. Was the recruitment process in KPMG an electronic one through aid of IT?

□ Yes

□ No

Q 5. Do you agree that the recruitment process achieved its purpose for the KPMG
when you were recruited?

□strongly agree □ agree □ neither agree nor disagree □disagree □strongly disagree

Q 6. What are the things which you as a candidate can improve in KPMG recruitment
process?

13 | P a g e
□speed □ quality □ accuracy □ interaction □reduce recruitment stages

Q 7. Do you think that quality recruitment process aids in organisational productivity

and performance?

□strongly agree □ agree □ neither agree nor disagree □disagree □strongly disagree

Q 8. Do you agree that recruitment strategy should be continuously evaluated against

the organisational goals and labour market indicators?

□strongly agree □ agree □ neither agree nor disagree □disagree □strongly disagree

14 | P a g e