Please discuss how the concepts of ‘person-job fit’ and ‘person-organisation fit’ can inform a recruitment strategy

Person–environment (PE) fit theories advocate that individuals are likely to perform better and exhibit more positive responses to work when they ‘fit’ or match congenially with their working environment (Carless, 2005). This concept is further developed by the concepts of ‘person job fit’ (PJS) and ‘person organization fit’ (POF), human resource concepts used to facilitate the selection and recruitment process. PJS concerns matching an applicant’s knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) to job requirements (Saks, Ashforth, 1997). POF is a deeper concept which relates to the degree of compatibility that exists between an applicant’s and an organisation’s attitudes, values and beliefs (Saks, Ashforth, 1997).

Recruitment concerns itself with attracting a pool of, ‘the right kind of candidate’ to an organization. By definition, this endeavour is fundamentally linked to the PJF and POF concepts. The application of POF to recruitment has emerged from Schneider’s (1987) attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model (Newell, 2009). Schneider suggested that ‘attraction to, selection into, and remaining in an organization’ are all established by the ‘perceived similarity’ between the person and his/her work environment (Newell, 2009). Recruitment is an expensive, but necessary process. In today’s competitive world, an organisation’s ability to attract suitable, talented candidates is of paramount importance. The costs of achieving this are high however, the costs of failure are equally expensive. With all things considered, including factors like training, employer pension contributions, general expenses the cost of employing someone may be equivalent to ‘twice their salary’. (Anonymous, 2013)

Recruitment strategies should primarily focus on g...

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...ess, S.A (2005) Person–job fit versus person–organization fit as predictors of organizational attraction and job acceptance intentions: A longitudinal study.

Newell, S (2009). Chapter 5 – Recruitment and Selection Retrieved 20th March 2014 from http://keats.kcl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/643661/mod_resource/content/1/Newell_2005.pdf)

Saks, A.M, Ashforth, B.E (1997) A Longitudinal Investigation Of The Relationships Between Job Information Sources, Applicant Perceptions Of Fit, And Work Outcomes. Retrieved 20th March 2014 from http://keats.kcl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/807545/mod_resource/content/1/Saks_Ashforth_1997.pdf

Schneider, B. (1987): The people make the place, Personnel Psychology, 40, 437-53. Cited in Newell, S (2009). Chapter 5 – Recruitment and Selection Retrieved 20th March 2014 from http://keats.kcl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/643661/mod_resource/content/1/Newell_2005.pdf)