Term Paper

On

Human Resource Management

Topic: Recruitment and Selection Process of Sales Associates in Aarong

Submitted To :

Name: Dr.Md.MesbahUddin

Department of Business Administration

Submitted By :

Name: Farhana Akman

ID: PG15-26-18-003

Department Of Business Administration

SUBMISSION DATE: DEC 7TH, 2018

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Letter of transmittal

Date: 7th December,2018

Dr.MD.Mesbah uddin
Faculty of State university

Subject: Submission of Term Paper

Dear Sir,With due respect, I would like to state that I am Farhana Akman, a regular student of
MBA,Batch 26th of this esteemed institution. My academic ID number is ID# PG15-26-18-
003. This term paper will contain a comprehensive study on the practice of human resource management
in Aaorng.

Therefore I pray and hope that you will be kind enough to grant my term paper and oblige hereby. Your
feedback will be highly appreciated.
Thankfully yours,
Farhana Akman
ID# PG15-26-18-003
State university

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Acknowledgement

First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty Allah, the merciful. Without his blessings, this report
wouldn’t be finish in time.

This report wouldn’t be completed without help from some important person. First of all I would like to thank my
honorable Dr.MD.Mesbah Uddin,Faculty Advisor, state university Without his kind help, I wouldn’t be able
to complete this report on human resour ce management pr act ice of Aarong.I would like to
thank Mr. Mohammad SaidurRahman, Executive, CRM who helped me by providing information on
Aarong. Without these helpful people, this report wouldn’t be completed.

At last I would like to thank and show my sincere gratitude to all the persons who were involved with this
report making process. Thank to them once again.

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Limitation of the report

Some of the limitations of the report are:

1.Non-availability of the most recent statistical data.

2.As I am student it is not possible for us to collect all the necessary information.

3.The HR manager is very busy with their jobs which lead a little time to consult with me.

4.Aarong didn’t want to provide all kind of data.

5.Accuracy of the secondary data depends upon the accuracy of the secondary
source as cross checking was not possible.

6.Due to confidentiality the policy of the Aarong restricts disclosing some important data.

7.Deficiencies in Data required for the study.Scheduling with university deadline and office assigned
job completion deadline mismatched for conducting the study

Executive 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. 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 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.

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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

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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.

Mission:
The mission of Aarong is to create appeal for a Bangladeshi life style experience by being the best
socially responsible enterprise empowering people to realize their potential.

Vision:

Aarong has a vision to establish itself as one of the famous fare trade fashion house of the world.
Aarong‘s vision is to remain market leader in Bangladesh to expand its business in international arena.
Aarong has a dream to develop more artisans of Bangladesh and empowering them by attracting
international customers toward Bangladeshi culture and heritage.

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.

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

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  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 :

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  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.

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  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:

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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

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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 Perform

HRM Practice at Aarong:

Human resource policies are established to support administrative functions, performance management,
employee relations and resource planning in an organization. These are among the important tools that
play significant and crucial role in job satisfaction as well as motivation of the employees. HR policies
must be effective and enforceable with approval from both management and employees. Each
organization develops its HR policies in alignment with the organization's goals, mission, priorities and
objectives. The Human Resource Department (HRD) of Aragon was established with a goal to maximize
job satisfaction, enhance transparency and ensure procedural justice for all employees. As the business
unit of BRAC one of the largest development organizations in the world, Aarong has well developed HR
policies. Aarong has a Human Resource department consisting of qualified, potential and committed staff
is committed to attain the organization’s goal and to operate effectively. The purpose of Human Resource
Division is to provide extensive effort to ensure that the staffs are properly appraised and also to provide
with due services and entitlements in time. Moreover the aim of HRD is to ensure a working environment
where the staff are nurtured and considered as absolute resources. To this end, HRD is committed to
guarantee the assignment of right people in the right place at the right time, to flourish human potentials
and provide a decent work atmosphere. This report has been prepared to focus on the Human Resource
Policies and Procedure of Aarong. However it will be highly difficult to cover all the side of the Human
Resource practice within the short purview of this report. For this reason this report focuses on job

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satisfaction, recruitment and selection process, employee motivation, performance appraisal, training
program and overall HR policy of Aarong.

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:

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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.

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

Compliance and Separation Management:

Human resources compliance is essential for an organization to be successful in today’s legal

environment. Aarong treat HR compliance a process for defining both individual and group behaviors to
ensure the laws and HR policies are followed appropriately. Core functions of compliance management of
Aarong are:

 Ensuring labor law and human resources policies and procedures apply equally to all employees,
and are applied fairly and consistently throughout organization.
 Designing and implementing an appropriate disciplinary program for employee misconduct.
 Encouraging internal reporting and responses to complaints.
 Conducting investigation.

Separation Management is one of the core units of Human Resources Division of Aarong. Its main
responsibilities are:

 Ensuring that an employee who quits the company is exited in a structured and orderly manner.
 Reviewing and approving termination for failure to improve attendance, conduct or performance
or due to serious misconduct.
 Managing, reviewing and authorizing the process of employee separation and dismissal due to
resignation, retirement, and redundancy.
 Conducting exit interview.

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  Ensuring the final payment of Aarong staff, who resign, and are terminated, retired, redundant
and dismissed.

Performance Appraisal:

Performance management is the continuous process that identify, measure and develop the performance
with the organizations goals rewards and recognition

The primary objective of performance appraisal is to evaluate the actual performance of the employees
compare to standard of performance. Every organization needs a system appraise its employees
performance. Good performance should be reinforced where corrective action should be taken for
undesirable performance.

The basic objectives of performance appraisal are:

 Identifying the right employees who have the potentiality to meet the expectations.
 To reduce absurd compensation costs which incurred with the employees who never meet
the expectations.
 Identifying the training and development needs.
 Strategizing employees’ and organizations goals.
 Enhancing employees effort so that their performances can strengthen.

Aarong ensures Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) for employee during recruitment of recruit
employee. Aarong being the on the enterprise of world's largest BRAC does not discriminate based on
race, color, religion, sex or national origin stating it to be an unlawful employment practice.

 Establishing a proper feedback process through communications between employees and

their subordinates. Assessing employees’ performance with a view to obtaining
organization’s strategic goals.

The reason for having the performance appraisal system is to evaluate them from different aspects and
find out employees' strengths and weakness and provide them the opportunity to improve them in order to
perform more effectively

The time period for performance appraisal is one year which starts from the January and ends at
December of that year. The performance appraisal system contains different aspects of be the criteria of
evaluation, it includes different element according the job level, and the contents.

Before appraising performance managers are briefed by HR department to make them understand certain
concepts in performance management and appraisal. There are several basic techniques managers use for
apprising performance. In terms of specific techniques, the graphic rating scale lists a number of traits and
a range of performance for each. For many supervisors it can be difficult to administrate performance
appraisals and it is important to understand the methods of dealing performance appraisal problems. The
supervisors need to keep several points in mind during the appraisal interview. Preparation is essential,

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manager shoulder be careful so that objective works do not get personal, encouraging employees to talk
and get agreement on how thing will be improved.

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.

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  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.

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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.

References:

http://www.aarong.com/about-aarong/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarong

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