Recruitment and Selection of Sales Process in Aarong

Recruitment and Selection of Sales Associates in Aarong

The purpose of this report is to put a light on the “Recruitment and Selection of Sales Associates in Aarong”. We all know that, Aarong is one of the most popular retail chain organization and leading fashion house of Bangladesh. To run this huge organization Aarong needs huge number of qualified and diverse employees and to manage this large number of employees it has Human Resource Department (HR Department) which performs all the human resource management activities.

INTRODUCTION

Aarong is more than a leading fashion house in Bangladesh, it is a pioneer name and reflection of Bangladeshi heritage and tradition. Aarong is an organization that is dedicated to bring about positive changes in the lives of disadvantaged artisans and unprivileged rural women. Promoting traditional products from Bangladesh and opening its doors to the world so their products can be exported. Aarong is one of the social enterprises of BRAC, which has started its journey in 1978 with the purpose of creating economic opportunity for disadvantaged artisans and rural women through the revival and promotion of their traditional handicrafts. The principal of Aarong is to provide a stable and gainful source of employment for the under privileged rural artisans, lift up the traditional identity and the commitment of quality service and by following this principal Aarong has come to this leading position.

Aarong’s reach has spread from where it started, Manikganj, to the rest of the country. From a single shop, Aarong has grown into one of Bangladesh’s biggest retail chains offering one-stop shopping experience through 13 stores spread across the major metropolitan areas of the country – in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet by various product categories from clothing to household items, gifts and fashion accessories to children‟s toys, ethnic wear to beautiful crafts, from silks, handloom cotton, Endi to Terracotta, bamboo, jute and much more. Currently Aarong supports over 65, 000 Bangladeshi artisans of whom 85 percent are women, throughout the country. Through a network of 637 production sub-centers under the 13 production centers and Aarong has developed a platform for the underprivileged artisans where they can utilize their indigenous skills to earn a living. As a result it is directly benefiting around 320,000 people.The enterprise has over 2300 people employed among them 60% are women. Aarong is also representing Bangladeshi culture to the outside world. This organization has export market since 1984. Aarong exports their products to Italy, U.K., Spain, Canada, Japan, Australia etc. 85% of the buyers of export market are leading fair trade buyers and 15% of the buyers are commercial buyers. The rich tradition of Bangladeshi craft and folk art returned to prominence through Aarong, which, for over 34 years, has been creatively blending traditional and ethnic craft-silks with contemporary styles and trends.

HISTORY

As Aarong is one of the social enterprises of BRAC, so to describe the history of Aarong, I should start from “BRAC” which started its journey in 1972. Initially, the main goal of BRAC was to serve as a relief operation committee for a specific period of time but gradually they understood that providing limited relief to the rural people was not enough to remove their poverty permanently. After the end of relief programme BRAC realised that, women were the most disadvantaged groups in poor rural communities. So in order to empower those women and to create an alternative opportunity of income BRAC started its sericulture project in 1978 under the leadership of the late Ayesha Abed, who was the former Executive Assistant Director of BRAC. The project has provided support to women in the rural areas of Manikganj and Jamalpur in producing high quality silk and traditional hand-stitched Nakshikatha accordingly. However, gradually they realised that the buyer of their products were not sufficient for the lack of proper platform to market their items. Then BRAC took the initiative to create a platform for those women so that they could sell their products to urban people; as a result they launched “Aarong” in 1978 to create a linkage between rural poor and urban retailers. However, after the death of Ayesha Abed, the Ayesha Abed Foundation was established by her family members in 1982 to continue her project operation. AAF was founded to gather and organize the both skilled and unskilled artisans from the different Village Organizations across the country to provide them training and employment. Now the foundation currently has 13 centres and 637 sub- centres spread across this country. Both Aarong and AAF also encouraged the independent producers to organise other artisans of their communities and to have a fair trade with Aarong. Currently, there are 800 independent artisans and 30,000 artisans are working with them. In addition, more than 35,000 rural artisans are working at AAF to produce and sell goods to Aarong, which has 13 outlets currently and it has also expand the business outside the country as well which was started from 1987.

Aarong’s Timeline

• 1978 – Opened its first retail outlet in Dhaka, Bangladesh
• 1982 – Established the Ayesha Abed Foundation, a network of production centres
• 1983 – Opened a retail outlet in Chittagong, Bangladesh
• 1985 – Opened a retail outlet in Sylhet, Bangladesh
• 1987 – Entered the export market
• 1995 – Opened a retail outlet in Khulna, Bangladesh
• 1999 – Participated in its first international fashion show
• 2001 – Launched a retail franchise in London, United Kingdom
• 2003 – Launched its sub-brand „Taaga‟, women‟s western fusion wear
• 2008 – Celebrated its 30th anniversary with an exhibition series and fashion gala
• 2011 – Opened its flagship outlet in Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• 2012 – Opened a retail outlet in Comilla, Bangladesh

Naming:

The word, Aarong “is a Bengali word which means, a village fair”. A village fair is a great event in the life of villagers. In a village fair artisans and craftsmen get the opportunity to show their talents and display their handcrafted traditional products for selling. The name Aarong represents the organizations commitment towards promoting traditional Bangladeshi products and designs which are handcrafted by rural artisans and handicraft producers around the country. And the products have the essence of Bangladeshi culture and beauty into every piece. Keeping these thoughts in mind, the organization has named “Aarong”.

Logo:

The logo of Aarong is the image of a peacock. It is rally eye catchy and beautiful because of the glowing, luminous, diversified colorful patterns in its tail. Through this logo Aarong communicates that its products are as eye-catching and as unique as a peacock. Moreover, it wants to emphasize on its natural, eco-friendly products through the symbol. There are two colors in the Aarong‟s logo. One is black and another is orange. Black represents professionalism and orange represents energy. (Karim, n.d.)

Products:

Every single product of Aarong is the reflection of the Bangladeshi culture and tradition. Though, recently it has started to blend between the western and bengali taste in its products, such as Taaga Products. Aarong has more than 100 product lines which covers from traditional to western attire, house hold goods to shoe bags, jewellery and leather accessories which has make customer to buy any kind of deshi products from one retail shop. The creativity and quality of the products has promoted it to the leading position in the fashion and craft industry of this country. The range of product offered by Aarong is as follows:

Home Wares, Furniture, Others:

Project: Recruitment and Selection of Sales Associates in Aarong

Summary:

The project topic of the report is “Recruitment and Selection Process of Sales Associates in Aarong”. This part provides a thorough understanding of Aarong‟s recruitment and selection process for sales associates through analysis with the concepts of recruitment and selection.

Project part starts with the objective of the project followed by methodology and limitations. In the main body of the project contains the definition of recruitment and selection; then the 9 steps of recruitment and selection process is thoroughly discussed along with a diagram. In the following part 6 steps of recruitment and selection process of sales associates of Aarong are explained along with the diagram. Then this process is analyzed based on the previous 9 steps of recruitment and selection process. Finally, some recommendations are mentioned depending on the analysis, discussions and observation during internship period in Aarong.

Description of the Project:

This section will describe the objective, methodology and limitations of the project.

Objective of the Project:

The objective of the project is to provide a clear picture of recruitment and selection process followed by Aarong to recruit the sales associates for their outlets, through the analysis between the concepts of recruitment and selection process with the Aarong‟s process along with some recommendations.

Methodology:

The information collected both from primary and secondary sources to analyze the project; however, some information used in analysis is collected from the critical observation and experience during the internship period.

Human Resource Management (HRM

Human Resource Management (HRM) is a “process of managing human talents to achieve organization‟s objective.” According to Haslinda (2009), recruitment and selection is a process of HRM.

Recruitment:

Recruitment is “the process of searching the prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an organization.”(Flippo, n.d.)

Selection:

The selection “process refers to the steps involved in choosing people who have the right qualifications to fill a current or future job opening”.(Dias,n.d.)

Steps of Staff Recruitment & Selection Hiring:

According to UCR.edu (n.d.), it is mentioned that, in order to ensure consistency and compliance in the recruitment and selection process and to hire and retain employees more efficiently; an organization is recommended to follow some crucial steps; which are also referred as Staff Recruitment and Selection Hiring Checklist. Steps are given below:

• Step 1: Identify Vacancy and Evaluate Need
• Step 2: Develop Position Description
• Step 3: Develop Recruitment Plan
• Step 4: Select Search Committee
• Step 5: Post Position and Implement Recruitment Plan
• Step 6: Review Applicants and Develop Short List
• Step 7: Conduct Interview
• Step 8: Select Hire
• Step 9: Finalize Recruitment

Step 1: Identify Vacancy and Evaluate Need:

As recruitment provides the opportunity to obtain departmental and individual growth by aligning staff skill sets to attain all the initiative and goals of the organization; so it is very crucial to identify the vacancy and evaluate the actual need of the hiring which will lead to hiring the right person in right role in right time. If it is determined that a new position is really needed for the organization than as a recruiter it is important to do some works; such as:

• Understand the strategic goals of the organization, upcoming changes which may impact this role
• Analyze the core competencies or skills which are missing and needed for now or for near future to identify the gaps
• Conduct a Job Analysis for the new position

Although, it is more logical to take the step of Replacement when attrition occurs, in that case, before obtaining approval to advertise the position, considering a Job Analysis in order to tailor the current position will be more appropriate step. As a result, it will be easy to do some changes of responsibilities which is required for that position.

2. Develop Position Description:

A position description is one of the keys of successful recruitment process. A clearly written position description can be very useful to develop interview question, interview evaluation, reference check questions and to provide first impression about the work place to the candidates.

Moreover, it helps to articulate responsibilities and qualifications to attract the right person for the right place in right time. Besides, if any discrimination complaints occur then it can be prevented or defended by providing this written evidence that employment decisions were based on rational business needs. To develop a Job Description it is important to identify the Position Purpose, Essentials Functions, Minimum Requirements, Preferred Qualifications along with some General Information.

3. Develop Recruitment Plan:

A structured Recruitment Plan is a guideline to create strategies to attract and hire best qualified candidates and to ensure that the women and underrepresented groups such as minorities, individuals with disabilities etc are included in the applicant pool. For each position a documented Recruitment Plan is approved by the organizational unit. There are 5 elements of recruitment plan :

• Posting Period
• Placement Goals
• Additional Advertising Resource
• Diversity Agencies
• Resume Banks

A) Posting Period:

Minimum posting period differ from one position to another. The option of ‘Open until Filled‟ is highly recommended for all recruitments as it allows the posting to remain open and viewable on the carrier site unit filled.

B) Placement Goals:

Placement Goals is required for each recruitment; so recruiter should first review the current placement goals and then develop a recruitment plan as it will assist in reaching those goal. Out-reach efforts to minorities and individual with disabilities should be included in the Placement Goals.

C) Additional Advertising Resource:

Both internal and external recruiting sources should be utilized to attract potential candidates; such as:

• Internet Job Boards can be a useful source in this modern age, where organization can provide job posting in their own official website. According to (Parry and Tyson, n.d.), nowadays, both recruiters and job seekers widely adopter Internet as medium which increases the use online recruitment and this method has grown rapidly over the past ten years.
• Again according to UCR.edu (n.d.), Print advertisement is an another good example for job posting which includes all important local media and national publications.
• Social Media is an important part of human life; so Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook can be a good alternative recruiting sources.
• Job Fair is considered as a best method for meeting potential candidates in a single events by recruiters who want to attract diverse candidates.
• Professional Conference and Campus Recruiting events are a great way to skim the most potential selective employees from a large pool of candidates. The organizations can have the assistance of these conference and campus career centres which provide job posting service and interview facilities.
• Diversity Agencies are another great source of talent which assist women and underrepresented groups and develop relationships; so that those candidates can have a better understanding about staffing needs.
• Resume Banks are now frequently used as good source for identifying qualified candidates. Job seeker post their resume in the resume bank which makes the searching process easier for prospective recruiters.
• According to Dessler (2008), Employee Referral is another important recruiting option. In employee referral campaigns organization posts announcement of job opening and request for referrals on its intranet website, bulletin or wallboard and even prizes or cash awards are provided for leading the hiring.

 Select Search Committee:

A Selection Committee is formed to minimize the personal biasness and to ensure fairness and compliance in the recruitment process. This committee will ensure the equal participation of women and under-represented groups. The hiring manager will decide who is going to be the member of this committee and who will have the direct and indirect interaction with the applicant in the course of their job. At least one member of this committee must have strong understanding of the role and contribution to the organization along with a Job Specialist (technical or functional) and an individual who will closely monitor the position and/or serves as a main customer must be included in the team. However, a person who may have interest in the position should not be included in the committee.

Post Position and Implement Recruitment Plan:

The position can be posted in the organization site once the position description has been completed. It is the duty of recruiting team to ensure the accuracy of the job description before posting, as it may not be possible to do any correction once it is posted, because it may create a negative impression about the organization. However, then recruitment plan will be implemented through regular and continuous monitoring on recruitment activity and recruitment plan effectiveness to ensure the successful search.

Review Applicant and Develop Short List:

After the position posting the candidates will apply for the position by sending or droping their Resume and Cover Letter (optional) and then they will be considered as “Applicant” or “Expressions of Interest”. However, Applicants are those who will apply for the position during the initial application period and those who will apply after the initial application period will be considered as Expression of Interest, whom will not be viewable by the search committee. It is recommended that search committee will go through all applicants to ensure the bias free qualification assessment. Moreover, each committee member will provide their opinion regarding Applicant‟s Qualifications and those will be cross matched with the minimum requirements of the position. However, to assist the search committee with their reviews, some information such as availability, salary requirements, special position requirements (ability to perform shift work) etc can be taken through phone call to the applicants and those phone screens should be documented properly. Gradually, through reviewing the search committee will develop a short list based upon the job requirements. If the short listed applicants are not diverse enough then the search committee may review the resume of those who are Expressions of Interest to short list some more numbers of potential applicants.

Conduct Interview:

Interview is the most important step in the whole selection process, as it provides the best opportunity for both employer and employee to learn more about each other and to ensure the authenticity of the information, which is provided by each. To evaluate the skills and abilities there are some guidelines of a through interview process; those are:

• As interview is a crucial part of the recruitment; so recruiters should be prepared for the interview before hand; such as determining the interview format, order of the question, who is going to ask which question, the optimum start date for the position or any other information applicant my required about the position which is not noted in the position.
• For Panel interview, interview committee members should ensure that they know which interview question each will ask.
• For Virtual Interview, it is recommended that applicant of any area will be provided with same opportunity be interviewed in the same manner as like local applicants to ensure fairness and equity at each stage of the interview process.
• Interview Questions should be prepared in such a way which will gather the maximum
• ormation on specific skills and abilities to perform the job. It is highly recommended to ask Behavioural and/or Competency based interview questions. Questions must be relevant to the position as it is illegal to ask any kind of questions which are not relevant to the job.
• Once the interview is completed, then the committee members will evaluate with proper evaluation tools and provide comments about applicants which should be relevant to the requirements of the position.

Testing and other Selection Methods:

After the interview, some other tests and selection tools can be used to assess candidates and applicants will be notified about that these tests will be a part of hiring process. There are some tests and selection methods for selection process, for example; Skill Demonstration Test can be taken where the applicants have to demonstrate how to perform the task of the position or job they are applying for. Another example is Writing Samples and Presentation Tests which can be taken to assess the writing and presentation skills of the candidates.

Select Hire:

Once the interviews and other selection tests are done, there will be a discussion among the committee members about candidate‟s assessment, which is based upon meeting the selection criteria. The committee member must keep in mind that, based on the qualification the best candidate should be chosen.

Reference Checks:

Reference Checks should be done, after the selection for the hiring. Failure to check can have serious legal consequences so it is also an important part of the selection process. The goal of reference check is to obtain information about a candidate‟s behavior and work performance which is also very crucial information to make final selection. It is recommended that these information and references should be obtained from current and previous supervisor who has the clear assessment of the job performance of the candidates. Additionally if possible it is recommended to obtain the copies of past performance reviews. There can be several reference checking option such as, Online Applicant Reference Checking or Phone Reference Checks etc but whatever the option is used, the collected information should be considered as part of overall decision making.

Finalize Recruitment:

The last step of recruitment and selection process is to Finalize Recruitment. Before initiating the job offer the it is recommended to check some key issues of the selection process, such as; review the duties and responsibilities of the post and ensure that those are clearly mentioned in the job description and interview process, ensure that selection criteria is based on required qualification for the position by reviewing, confirming that based on selection criteria interview questions are matched and all the applicants were treated equally in the recruitment, screening and the selection process etc. During the offering time the compensation package, paid time, other benefits, development and learning opportunities etc should be discussed with the finalist.

Recruitment of Sales Associates in Aarong

Aarong carries the whole recruitment and selection process which become easier for having its own in-house recruitment and selection team. Though there is a separated training team but they also play a crucial role in the selection process. However the Sales Associates who are also called Project Staffs in the Aarong stay in the probation period which is 6 months. The employees are closely observed by the outlet manager in these 6 months ; so that they could keep record of their performance and give feedback and score in the Performance Appraisal on correspondence of performance indicators. The employee who will full-fill all the required criteria and obtain minimum marks in the performance evaluation will be confirmed as the permanent employee of the organization.

HR Forecasting:

Recruitment team of the Aarong starts their recruitment process for the Sales Associate from the HR planning and forecasting. The recruitment team estimates the number of Sales Associate need to be recruited. This forecasting is done by considering some factors; such as:

• Turnover Rate and Trend
• Festivals and Occasion
• Number of Customer Presence in the store
• New store Opening

Job Posting:

When the recruitment team know the number of employees needed for the store through forecasting; they go for Job Posting. For Sales Associate recruitment Aarong mostly goes for External Recruitment. However, sometimes few temporary sales people who worked for contractual Eid Service are retained to fill up the emergency vacant positions and those contractual employees were also recruited through external recruitment procedure like the regular employees. So we can say that Aarong always consider External Recruitment procedure for Sales Associate Position. Advertisement of job vacancy is done through posters, newspaper ads and also announcing in Bdjobs.com with specifying the requirements of application in the position of “Sales Associates” in Aarong. The minimum requirements for the Sales Associate position are:

• Education: The applicants should be at least pass the HSC or equivalent field of study and must have enrolled or studying for graduation.
• Experience: No experience necessary for the position though experience candidates are given preference.
• Skill: The applicants should have satisfactory language skills and should have smart looks or in other words pleasant grooming.
• Age: The age limit to apply for the post is 18 to 26

Resume Collection:

Once the job posting is done then the next step is collect the resumes. Most of the resumes are collected from the outlets Resume Drop Box and sometimes collected from the Resume drop box of Aarong Head Office. After a good number of resume collection, the selection process starts. However, the recruitment and selection process is completed approximately within 20days of the job posting and joining is completed within 10 to 12 days of the final selection.

Selection Process of Sales Associate in Aarong

HR people of Aarong think selection process is one of the crucial part of the Sales Associate recruitment; because if the sales force is not recruited efficiently then the organization may get hampered. So recruitment and selection team ensures that the applicants who are selected must be capable enough to provide extensive customer service and maintain the organization‟s image, reputation and culture. To choose the right candidate in right way selection process is divided into some steps. Those are:

1. Sort resumes to short list candidates for interview
2. Interview of candidates
3. “Pre-Service Training‟‟ for selected candidates
4. Taking selection test after training session
5. Reference and Certificate Check
6. Job Offer

Selection process is described below:

1. Sort resumes to short list candidates for interview:

The first step is to sorting the all resumes to short list the potential candidates according to the requirements which was provided in the job posting. So while resumes are screened, recruitment and selection team become concern about the education, experience, age, grooming etc.

2. Interview of candidates:

Once the potential candidates are short listed from the huge number of applicants, then they are informed about the interview date and time through phone calls to each candidate with detail. As One by One interview process is conducted so each candidate is interviewed separately by the interview panel which is consists of two interviewers; one is Senior HR Officer of the outlet and another one is the concerned outlet manager. This interview panel closely judge the language skills proficiency, way of speaking, pronunciations, grooming, smartness, cooperativeness, eye contact, knowledge about customer service and other interpersonal skills as well.

3. “Pre-Service Training’’ for selected candidates:

Pre-service training for Sales Associates is consists of two types of training . Those are:

• Regular Pre- Service Training
• Eid Pre-Service Training

a) Regular Pre-Service Training:

The regular pre-service training is provided to candidates who are selected from the interview for the regular sales position. It is a 2days training session where master module is followed. The module contains organization information, HR policies, product knowledge, sales policy, customer service. The content of this module is delivered through various methods to the trainee. Lectures, interactive group discussion, the question answer session, energizer games etc are some example of mostly used methods in this training. The objective of this training is the knowledge and behavioral development of the sales associates, so that they can have better knowledge about organizational information, HR policies, product, and sales policy and be proactive to give best customer service. Learning of the trainee is evaluated in the After Training Exam; which is taken by the trainers.

b) Eid Pre-Service:

The Eid Pre- Service training is designed specifically for the candidates who are tend to be selected for the Eid time only which is a contractual job. There are differences between Regular- Pre Service and Eid Pre Service; such as Eid Pre Service is conducted for a day and in one day the trainers try to provide a overall understanding by using summary of Regular Pre Service Training module. The main focus of this training is to provide knowledge about the product, sales policy and customer service. The same test is taken to evaluate and select the final candidates for the post of contractual sales job in Eid–time.

4. Taking selection test after training session:

“Selection Test” is a technique to evaluate the learning of the candidates from the Pre Service Training. There are two part of the test one is Qualitative Test and another one is Quantitative Test. The Qualitative Test is taken during the training time through close observation of the trainers on the behavior and grooming of the trainee and the Quantitative test is basically a written test where trainee has to answer the question related to the lesson provided in the training. To pass the test the candidates must obtain 60% marks in both the test combined.

5. Reference and Certificate Check:

After the selection is done through the test; then the HR team carries out the background investigation of the potential candidates by checking their all certificates, references etc to ensure the authenticity of the information given by the candidates. The educational certificates are checked to make sure that there is no fraud.

6. Job Offer:

After the verification of the certificates and references the candidates finally become eligible to join the sales associate team of the Aarong; so they are requested to carry the joining procedure of the Aarong. However, the candidates can anytime deny joining the organization and in that case the organization will never force any candidates to join. Selected employees stay in the probation period for the 6 months; though they can be terminated anytime due to irregular attendance, sexual harassment, financial misappropriation and any other activities which can be considered as the violation of the HR policy of the organization. Besides, probationary employees can be terminated after 6 months due to poor performance.

The Recruitment and Selection Process of Aarong Project Staffs can be summarized with showing it in a flow diagram:

Analysis

In the above two sections, a general Recruitment & Selection Process along with Aarong‟s Recruitment & Selection Process has been discussed with diagrams. From the diagram and the discussion we can easily understand that more or less all the steps of general recruitment and selection process are touched by Aarong but the process is dependent on the Aarong‟s own culture, context, size and industry which it belongs to. For example; like the general process, Aarong at first Identify the Vacancy numbers and evaluate needs through HR Forecasting. As the position of sales associate is not new in Aarong, so they do not have to develop the Position Description but they always review the previous position description of sales associate before starting recruitment process. In the Recruitment Plan part they determine the Placement Goal and then go for job posting through using some options like Internet Job Post, Print Advertisements, Employee Referrals. From Employee Referral recruitment team gets a smart number of potential and reliable candidates resume. Although Aarong mostly goes for the External Recruitment but sometimes they do internal recruitment as well by recruiting contractual employees of Eid PreService as permanent one. However, after the end of initial application period recruitment and selection team which is previously determined, collects resumes from the sources; but sometimes when there is a shortage of potential candidates, recruiting team consider the resumes of „Expressions of Interest‟ who delayed to drop their resumes in due time. After that, selection team review the applicant‟s resume to develop a short list which is based upon minimum of Education, Experience, skill and Age. Then comes the crucial part „Interview of Candidates‟ for sales associate recruitment Aarong goes for the One by One Interview. The questions asked by the interviewer are pre decided. After the selection from interview round Aarong‟s Training Department provide training to the selected candidates and take a Test as an another Selection Tool to evaluate their learning and ability to perform and based on the Training Test marks the selected candidates are finally invited for „Documentation‟ or Reference Checks.

After clearing the Reference Checks finally the recruiters offer the job and Finalize Recruitment. Though the recruitment and selection team of Aarong provide their best effort but due to some unavoidable circumstance sometimes challenges occurs and hamper the efficiency and effectiveness of work.

According to my experience and observation some challenges are mentioned below:

• Sometimes the location of new outlets creates shortage in supply of potential candidates for other outlets; such as, recruitment of new outlet of Jamuna Future Park creates shortage of candidates in Gulshan outlet; as some candidates who live in Baridhara or near to that area are now interested to work for the Jamuna Future Park Outlet rather than Gulshan.
• Sometimes repetition of, the same person‟s resume hamper the effectiveness of work.
• During the interview call the interruption of trainees decrease the flow of work.
• Sometimes it becomes difficult to provide the address of Head office (Interview Venue) as it is not familiar to everyone and it increases the absenteeism rate on interview day.
• One by one interview process become time consuming during the peak period (Eid Pre Service) for recruitment.
• Though the Trainee of Regular Service gets enough time to take preparation for the written exam but in Eid Pre Service Training candidates have very short time to take preparation, as they had to cover whole summary content of the regular training in one day and attend the written exam in that day as well. As a result, some candidates who are good at appearance and have satisfactory interpersonal skill cannot give their best effort in the written exam as it become too much information to process in a short span of time.
• Though officially the documentation or reference check timing is specific but due to some reasons sometimes selected candidates come for reference check anytime they want, which creates an interruption in other work. As reference checking and documentation takes time so this long interruption hamper the flow of my other works.

Recommendations

Online Resume Bank: Aarong should create an Online Resume Bank of their own, so that the process of recruitment can be more broadened and they can have candidates to choose form.

Outlet Location: For future employment, setting up new outlets should be more analyzed so that candidates do not have to overlap between options.

Group Interview: Group Interview is recommended rather than One by One Interview; as it will save time and will give opportunity for recruiters to find out the people who stand out in the crowd and have better interpersonal skills.

Interview at Outlet: As everyone is aware of their nearby outlet address; so it becomes easier for them to find out the interview venue. Since interviews were taken previously in the outlet; so it can be recommended to arrange the interview in the outlet more frequently. Moreover, it will help to reduce the absenteeism rate in the interview, as for some candidate it is not convenient.

More Time for Training: Trainee of Eid Pre Service should be given more time to be more prepared for the written test.

Provide a Book of Rules and Regulations: Aarong can provide the Eid Pre Service sales associates with a book of the organization‟s rules and regulations so they can carry it with them when going to work.

Training Result: It is highly recommended to provide training result and documentation information to candidates who are selected over Text Messages (i.e. SMS) rather than phone call to save the time and to provide them a proper evidence of the information.

Specific Date for Reference check: Reference checking or documentation date and time should be strictly maintained.

Conclusion

Aarong, a social enterprise of BRAC is always dedicated to improve and develop internally. It practices the modern recruitment and selection procedures. It allows diversity among employees such as minorities and women. I have learnt about the recruitment and selection procedures of sales Associates of Aarong. In this report I have tried to full fill the all criteria that are needed in this report. From my internship experience and analysis of the report I learnt that Aarong is very strict about the reference check so that the background of the employees assessed which is a good initiative. Another praiseworthy initiative is that, they provide training to the sales associates; which helps them in developing their employability. Aarong follows the concept of equal employment opportunity and their endless effort in recruitment and selection process makes them standout from others.