RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS IN CIVIL SERVICES IN KENYA

INTRODUCTION
This article examines the recruitment and selection process in the city council of Nairobi,
Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive. Simple random sampling was used to get a sample
population that assist in the research though provision of relevant data. The study targeted
employees of the City Council of Nairobi, head office along Mama Ngina Street Nairobi. A
sample size of 50 employees was considered for seeking their opinion and the sample was
limited to the six departments’ employees the management

Recruitment according to Nzuve (1997) refers to the discovery and development

of the sources of required personnel so that sufficient number of candidates will always be
available for employment in the organization. The purpose of recruitment is to seek out
or explore, to evaluate, to induce and to obtain commitment from the prospective
employees so as to fill up positions required for successful operation and organization.
Cole (1990) further says that recruitment provides a pool of candidates to enable
management to select suitable candidates for different jobs. Recruitment is a positive
process as it increases the number of applicants from which a real choice can be made.
Recruitment can be done from two different sources. These are internal and external
sources.

Internal sources of recruitment involve sourcing from within the organization.

They include transfers, promotions, present employee amongst others. Internal
recruitment increases the morale and motivation of the work force. On the other hand it
reduces the costs of advertising, recruitment, induction and training. Further internal
recruitment has the advantage of good coordination within the organization as the internal
appointee and the organization are “known” to each other (Pratt and Bennett, 1989).

Transferring of an employee of an organization from one work place to another

may be used as a source of recruitment to meet personnel demand at the place to which
the employee is transferred. Transfer of an employee from one place to another does
ordinarily result in any change in the nature of duties or emoluments. It does not also alter
the number and kind of employees working in the organization.
 The appointing an employee to a position of greater responsibility or authority
(promotions) is also an ideal internal recruitment strategy.

While promotion brings about a change in the nature of duties and authority of the
employees concerned and also his emoluments, it does not alter the number and kinds of
employees of the enterprise (Lazear, 1991).

Present employee can also be a form of an internal source of recruitment of

personnel. In the event of any vacancy, employees of the enterprise may be asked to
recommend their friends and relatives for employment. The present employee knows
what the company and the acquaintance and presumably would attempt to please both
(Raymond, 1970). It will not only keep the employees happy and in high morale, but also
ensure recruitment of competent and sincere persons. This is because ordinarily an
employee will only recommend those persons in whose capacity for hand and sincere
work he has full confidence, for if the person recommended by him does not perform
well, he may be held responsible (Strauss and Sayles, 1980).

The only point against this method of recruitment, which is the basis of research,
is that it may promote favouritism and nepotism. Workers may not be recruited not
because of their suitability for the jobs but because they have right contacts in the
enterprise who may sponsor their names and tilt the scales in their favour. External
sources of recruitment involve sourcing from outside the organization. The methods have
well established methods like advertisements, professional magazines, and professional
bodies.

Jobs are advertised through daily newspapers or weekly general circulation

magazines. Advertisements give as much factual information as possible stated in precise
and accurate terms as it is done by the specialist. The recruitment advertising should be
aimed as an appropriate audience. Also the advertisement should produce an adequate
number of replies and its contents should arouse interest and provide sufficient details to
prompt a response from the correct level of applicant (Pratt and Bennett, 1989).
Professional magazines- this source is more suitable for jobs requiring highly skilled or
professional level employees like Doctors, Engineers and Accountants.

Many big organizations maintain a close liaison with universities, vocational

schools and management institutions to recruit personnel for various jobs this is known as
“campus recruitment”. Many business enterprises send circulars to the educational
 institutions seeking applications for jobs from the students. Sometimes the senior
managers of companies visit educational institutions and interview the students for
various jobs. Recruitment from educational institutions has become a well- established
practice of business organizations, which require clerks and management trainees in large
numbers (Flippo, 1980); also most of the appropriate professional organizations maintain
employment registers of qualified professional people who wish to improve or change
their positions like accountants and company secretaries.

Some organizations, (Employment agencies) try to assist their registered members

to obtain employment or assist those who wish to improve or change their positions, the
use of private employment bureaus that save one from trouble of advertising and provide
ready candidates with priority requirements at short notice. On the other hand consulting
firm’s acts as an intermediary between an applicant and the organization. It is a
specialised agent, which on receiving requisition from clients companies, advertise the
job descriptions in leading national news papers and periodicals without disclosing the
name of the client companies concerned. The applications received from candidates are
duplicated and passed on to the employers. Sometimes, these firms may even screen,
interview and select the candidates and for a specified period also stands a surety for them
in case their performance does not satisfy the expectations of the client company. An
example of such consultancy firm is the price water house in Kenya (Evans, 1992).

Circulars and posters can also be displayed outside the factory or office
advertisement boards shown in public places and circulars distributed in suitable places.

This can be a form of external sources of recruitment. Also an enterprise may send
out team of experts to different places where the kinds of personnel needed by it may be
found (field trips). Normally a wide publicity to the date, venue and time when such team
would interview candidates at a particular place is given. Example of such recruitment is
the police and armed forces recruitment where they normally visit each district and do
recruitment for the required personnel (Van and Ridder, 1993).
NEEDS OF THE STUDY

Once the form has been submitted, the public service recruitment staff scrutinizes
the information given by the applicants against the required description. This assists the
recruitment and selection staff to select qualified candidates to shortlist and later call
them for interviews. A panel of interviewers is allocated the duty of interviewing the
short listed candidates to choose the best among them who will fill the vacancy.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

Selection involves screening or evaluation of applicants to identify those who are

best suited to perform the jobs, which have fallen vacant in an organization. According to
Evans it is a process of rejecting many unsuitable candidates to choose the few suitable
applicants.

The process entails the use of different selection methods, ranging from
graphology to interviews to assessment centres to work sample tests. They can be
evaluated in terms of practicality, sensitivity, reliability and validity. Here we are mostly
concerned with a tool’s validity .

The selection method is a crucial aspect to be considered as its main purpose is to

screen the applicants’ abilities and traits in order to assess the degree of success and
compatibility of the individual in the organization. This is the phase of the recruitment
strategy where the communication between the two parts (employers and job seeker)
 SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

Currently the Public Service Commission of Kenya is responsible for filling any vacant
position in the council.

It advertises the vacancy in the city council in the commission’s website and in both the
Kenya Gazette and the local newspapers.

This is meant to give equal opportunities to all applicants who may be interested in the
vacancy advertised and to collect adequate number of applicants from which they will
select qualified employees to fill the vacancy advertised.

Applicants are either allowed to apply manually through visiting the customer service
desk in the public service offices and fill a form indicating individual profiles or apply
online by filling a form on their website and submitting it soon after completion.

The form requires applicants to fill specific type of information which is necessary for the
selection process.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

The Nairobi city council’s recruitment policies have procedures to be followed in the
recruitment and selection process of employees and the policies over equal employment
opportunities to all people regardless of where you come from in Kenya.

This has however been contradicted with the reality in the ground as most of the employees
were recruited according to who they knew in the council.

According to a respondent from the Human Resources Department of the city council of
Nairobi.

They have been mandated to process appointments within a period of less than one
month. Once the appointments have been processed, they will be forwarded to the public
service commission of Kenya to fill the vacancies.

This was established after the recruitment and selection of employees in the city council
was reduced a tribal affair and who you know affair and it was meant to give equal
opportunity to all Kenyans regardless.