Staffing practices and selection tool paper

Companies need to ensure they provide efficient management of human resources in order to succeed in the market, particularly when they are operating in the international market. Organizations usually apply of the two different approaches to recruitment: 1) hire people randomly, with selection based only on their qualifications and education; and 2) hire employees according to the recruitment plan which has been created in accordance with the company’s strategic goals. If organizations apply the first approach, they can often discover that no matter how highly-qualified their employees are, they do not contribute to the organization’s goals in the long run. The second approach can be described as a strategic approach to the human resource management in the company.

World Bank is one of the leading international organizations of the world. In order to successfully access development problems of the world, it devotes very much attention to recruitment and selection of personnel. World Bank applies strategic approach to human resources recruitment and selection. Personnel managers of the organization believe that only strategic approach can help World Bank to be efficient in all of its activities. Every single employee in the organization is selected in such a way that he becomes a cell of the World Bank’s organism. Each separate employee might not be the most highly-qualified professional in the world by himself, but all of the employees together enable the organization function the most efficiently. The task of the recruiter thus becomes the selection of employees who could make the largest contribution to strategic goals of the organization and who can be the best members of the Bank’s team.

Globalization and diversity are the major tendencies defining recruitment and selection policy at World Bank. It is an international organization, and thus it benefits greatly from correct decisions made regarding the selection of nationals of different countries to the open positions. Recruitment and selection of people from various cultures enables the bank to take advantage of their diverse backgrounds and areas of concentration.

One of the crucial tasks of World Bank’s personnel managers is selection of the best candidates for the position out of a large number of applicants. World Bank is one of the most attractive employers in the international market, and thus personnel managers receive thousands of qualified applications for most of the positions. There are quite limited professional job openings, and the Bank therefore has launched a few competitive programs for young professionals who would like to connect their future with the Bank. These programs include Young Professionals Program, Junior Professional Associates Program, and some others. As the result of each program, forty to fifty young specialists are selected annually and offered jobs.

Besides these programs, competent specialists are encouraged to apply for professional job opportunities at the Bank. In order to select the best candidates, personnel officers at first review all of the received resumes and choose those which represent the best fit for the position. Later managers of departments conduct a large number of interviews with potential employees. It appears to be a very challenging task to make the final choice about the job offer, because there are many talented applicants.

The Bank also offers consulting opportunities for professionals who have broad experience in various fields (such as finance, nutrition, waste management, energy, mining, and many others). Both college graduates with advanced degrees and senior level professionals from other organizations are able to occupy consultant positions. The Bank offers both short-term consultant positions (for less than a year) and extended-term consultant positions (for two years). For many professionals, consulting opportunities at the Bank became a starting point for their career in the organization.

In my opinion, World Bank’s recruitment and selection policy is very efficient, but it could be improved in some ways. First, some nations are over-represented in the organization, while others are under-represented, and this needs to be changed. The Bank offers additional job opportunities for professionals from donor countries, but people who work in other countries often have much more difficulties with obtaining a job. For example, young professionals from donor countries are able to apply for Junior Professional Officers program, while others do not have such an opportunity. In the globalized world, it is very important for all of the nations to have equal opportunities. The Bank might need to launch a few new recruitment programs for those nations which are under-represented in the organization.

Second, the Bank has a very inefficient policy regarding administrative and support staff. In most cases, those people who started working at the Bank at administrative level never get promoted to professional level, no matter how many degrees they obtain afterwards. Personnel office of the Bank needs to change this policy, because some people joint the Bank when they are very young, and do not have enough education yet. However, they might want to continue studying in future, and they need to be promoted to professional level according to their education and experience.

In conclusion, it is necessary to mark that large organizations, like World Bank, need to ensure that their personnel policy is constantly updated according to the demands of the market. It is not easy to make a large organization efficient, and correct selection of personnel plays a vital role in that. Current recruitment policy of World Bank is relatively efficient, but some changes need to be made in it in the nearest future for the bank to perform at a high level.

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