Determinants of job seekers to select recruitment agency for new job vacancies.

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ TP. HCM UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL

MBAVB3

PHAN XUÂN BÌNH

DETERMINANTS OF JOB SEEKERS TO SELECT

RECRUITMENT AGENCY FOR NEW JOB VACANCIES

MASTER PROJECT

MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(PART-TIME)

Tutor’s Name: Dr. NGUYỄN MINH HÀ

Ho Chi Minh City

(2010)

I

ABSTRACT

The study aims to find out key factors which strongly influence to the selection of

job seekers when approaching recruitment agency for new job. Job seekers’

assessments involve in job vacancy – influences and characteristics of recruiters

and recruitment agency – standard operational procedures practiced by both

recruitment agency and recruiter. The study tries to find out the difference of using

recruitment agency and other sources. Through the assessment of job seekers,

recruiter and recruitment agency will understand which vacancy’s characteristics

they should focus on to communicate and select “right candidate”. The operational

procedures of recruitment services are analyzed to verify its interaction to job

seekers. From the results those working in this services and also recruiter can

consider to leverage the advantages of their companies in attracting more

applicator. Besides, the limitation of recruitment and selection procedure,

interviewer should be corrected to improve the professionalism and attractiveness

of both recruiter and recruitment agency.

Overall, this study tries to figure out the job seeker’s insight when they cooperate

to recruitment agency and recruiter. Well understanding most important

stakeholders, recruitment agency can improve its performance.

Key words:

Recruitment, recruitment agency, recruitment sources, recruitment consultant, job

vacancy, job seekers

II

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1 General background ......................................................................................... 1

1.2 Rationale........................................................................................................... 2

1.3 Problem statement ............................................................................................ 3

1.4 Research objectives ......................................................................................... 3

1.5 Scope of study .................................................................................................. 4

1.6 Research method ............................................................................................. 4

1.7 Research structure ........................................................................................... 5

CHAPER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction and overview ................................................................................ 6

2.2 Definitions ......................................................................................................... 7

2.3 Theory of choices ........................................................................................... 11

2.4 Theory of Customer Behavior ......................................................................... 15

2.4.1 Customer Behavior and Roles of Customer ............................................ 15

2.4.2 Customer Needs and Wants .................................................................. 16

2.4.3 Values sought by User – Job seeker .................................................... 17

2.5 Summary ......................................................................................................... 18

CHAPER 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Proposal research procedure.......................................................................... 19

3.2 Research methodology ................................................................................... 21

III

3.2.1 Qualitative research ......................................................................... 21

3.2.2 Quantitative research....................................................................... 22

3.3 Assessment of measurement of scales ........................................................... 25

3.3.1 General perception of job seekers about sources of recruitment, job

characteristics, and employers influences .................................................. 25

3.3.2 Determinants of factors affect to the selection of recruitment agency

by job seekers ............................................................................................ 28

3.4 Summary ......................................................................................................... 30

CHAPER 4 - RESEARCH RESULTS

4.1 Descriptive statistics on total sample .............................................................. 32

4.1.1 Overall personal information ........................................................... 35

4.1.2 Working Industry .............................................................................. 36

4.1.3 Current position ............................................................................... 36

4.1.4 Sources to find job vacancy ............................................................ 37

4.1.5 Sources to find most recent job vacancy ........................................ 39

4.2 Quantitative study ........................................................................................... 39

4.2.1 Factor analysis................................................................................. 39

4.2.2 Mean analysis .................................................................................. 43

4.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis ............................................................................ 45

4.4 Independent sample test ................................................................................. 55

4.4.1 Working industry ................................................................................ 56

4.4.2 Position .............................................................................................. 58

IV

4.5 Summary ......................................................................................................... 59

CHAPER 5 - CONCLUSION

5.1 Research summary ....................................................................................... 62

5.2 Recommendation........................................................................................... 66

5.3 Limitation & suggestion further researches .................................................... 66

Reference list ..................................................................................................... i

Appendix A ...................................................................................................... iv

Appendix B ...................................................................................................... xi

Appendix C ..................................................................................................... xii

Appendix D ..................................................................................................... xiii

Appendix E ..................................................................................................... xv

Appendix F ................................................................................................... xxvii

V

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1Customer Behavior Domain ................................................................... 15

Table 3.1 Research procedure .............................................................................. 20

Table 3.2 Variables for factor – Sources of recruitment ....................................... 26

Table 3.3Vacancy characteristics ......................................................................... 26

Table 3.4 Required Information of vacancy .......................................................... 27

Table 3.5 Professionalism of employers and interviewers .................................... 27

Table 3.6 Job vacancy characteristics & attractiveness introduced by RA ............ 28

Table 3.7 Recruitment agency characteristics ...................................................... 29

Table 3.8 Recruitment consultant’ competences................................................... 30

Table 3.9 Convenience of interview by RA ........................................................... 30

Table 4.1 Qualitative statistics............................................................................... 32

Table 4.2 Factor Analysis Results ........................................................................ 47

Table 4.3 Cronbach Alpha’s value of each factor .................................................. 53

Table 4.4 Reliability test results ranking by descending importance ..................... 54

Table 4.5 Statistics Result of Independent-Sample T-test (Service and Supply

Chain – Logistics) for all factors ............................................................................ 56

Table 4.6 Statistics on Independent –Samples T-Test – Factor 4 ......................... 57

Table 4.7 Variable’s mean in Factor 4 ................................................................... 58

Table 4.8 Statistics Result of Independent-Sample T-test (Officer and Middle

Management position) for all factors .................................................................... 60

VI

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1 Gender ................................................................................................. 35

Chart 4.2 Working industry ................................................................................... 36

Chart 4.3 Current position of respondents ............................................................ 36

Chart 4.4 Newspaper advert source ..................................................................... 37

Chart 4.5 Post CV on online recruitment website source ...................................... 38

Chart 4.6 Recruitment agency ............................................................................... 38

Chart 4.7 Walks-in ................................................................................................ 39

Chart 4.8 Other sources ........................................................................................ 39

Chart 4.9 Sources for recent job vacancy ............................................................. 40

Chart 4.10 Factors summary ................................................................................. 60

VII

DECLARATION

I declare that the work presented in this thesis has not been previously submitted

for any degree or diploma or at any other higher education institution. I use best of

my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously public or

written by other person except where due reference is made in the text

SIGNATURE: PHAN XUÂN BÌNH

DATE: JAN 01st 2011

VIII

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Deeply in my heart, I would like to say my big thanks for my parents

who never stop encourage and support me to pursuit my learning. I’m

deeply aware of their sacrifice and promise not to disappoint them.

I would like to acknowledge all my professors and coordinators at

Solvay Brussels School and HoChiMinh City Open University who

provide us valuable knowledge and support with their best whole￾hearted attitudes.

Of course, I could never have reached this point without the great

assistance of my tutor, PhD Nguyen Minh Ha. His positive feedbacks,

coaching and encouragement help me to find out the best way to

finish this thesis. Thanks so much for your kind assistance.

I also would like to acknowledge the support of my family, friends,

employer and colleagues had shown to me. Without their

encouragement and sharing, I will be difficult to do such a work.

For my classmates who have been with me for the whole course,

without their assistance, encouragement and sharing, I may lose my

spirit and face so much difficulties. I extend a huge thanks to all

beloved classmates.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the participants to my research.

1

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL BACKGROUND

Vietnam is one of the top highest growing countries in the world for the last decade

and coming years. Together with the high growth is the huge demand of well -

qualified labor force especially in big economic centers such as Ha Noi and Ho Chi

Minh City.

This trend explains why Vietnam is a very promising market and destination for

recruitment services. Since 1995 many well known consultancies as KPMG, Price

Waterhouse Coppers, Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton had set up its recruitment

services in Vietnam besides the presence of many specialized recruitment agencies

as Manpower, Bo Le, FirstAlliances, L&A, HR capital Vietnam, VIP Database,

HR2B, NetViet. After the recovery of financial crisis in 2009, famous worldwide

recruitment agencies such as Andecco, Robert Walters, Jobstreet, Odgers

Berndtson have eyed Vietnam market. However the increasing growth in term of

quantity of well-experienced labor force is always lower than the demand. This

circumstance explains why there always exists a fierce competition among

recruitment agencies to attract and enrich its candidate’s pool and improve job

seekers’ interest and attention to job openings

Recruitment is one of elements of human resource management as it is the method

to use to acquire the human capital for the organization. That’s why most of foreign

and big local companies use recruitment agencies (or employment agencies) as one

of the key recruitment sources to attract middle to senior employees.

In the view of employer, the time to fill job vacancy and suitability of candidate is one

of key performance indicators to evaluate the quality of recruitment agency services.

2

To meet the demand of clients (recruiters), recruitment agencies (RA) have to be

aware of assessment job seekers to communicate and attract their interests,

attention and intention to job vacancies.

This study tries to indicate the significant factors which affect job seekers’ choice of

recruitment agency as recruitment sources for a new job. The findings are important

for recruitment agencies to navigate, improve its services and enhance quality of its

key manpower – recruitment consultants

1.2 RATIONALE

Recruitment agencies play an intermediate role between employers/ recruiters and

job seekers for a specific job vacancy. It appears that most of employers choose a

recruitment agency despite there is maybe higher expenses of this source than

using other recruitment sources in some extents below:

• The job vacancy is top confidential and recruiter cannot launch the public

recruitment

• The vacancy requires very short time to fill

• The limited staffing resources of recruiting department or

• The limited candidate pool in some industry or function which may cause very

long time to fill the vacancy or to find out the right candidate

In the view of employers/ recruiters, the pre-hire outcomes means the time vacancy

is filled; the number of qualified shortlisted candidates, candidates’ suitability and fill

rate are important criteria to evaluate the quality of recruitment agency services.

To meet required pre-hire outcome, recruitment agencies (RA) have to understand

their job seekers’ insights and influences to communicate and to attract their

interests, attention and intention to job vacancies.

Consistency to the above reasons, the qualified candidate pool will impact strongly

on the performance and service quality of a recruitment agency (RA). Besides, the