Development of E-Recruitment Software

3.7 Advantages & Disadvantages of E-Recruitment

There are many benefits both to the employers and the job seekers but the not also free from a few shortcomings. Some of the advantages and the disadvantages of e –Recruitment are as follows:

Advantages of E-Recruitment (For the Proposed System) are:

• Lower costs to the organization. Also, posting jobs online is cheaper than advertising in the newspapers.
• No intermediaries.
• Reduction in the time for recruitment (over 60 percent of the hiring time).
• Facilitates the recruitment of right type of people with the required skills.
• Improved efficiency of recruitment Process
• Gives a 24*7 access to online collection of resumes.
• Online recruitment helps the organizations to weed out the unqualified candidates in an automated way.
• Recruitment websites also provide client companies with valuable data and information regarding the compensation offered by their competitors which helps the HR managers to take various HR decisions like promotions, salary trends in industry etc

Disadvantages of E-Recruitment Apart from the earlier named benefits, e-recruitment has its own demerits/ disadvantages. Some of them are:

• Screening and checking the skill mapping and authenticity of millions of resumes is a problem and time consuming exercise for organizations.
• Internet access is yet to become a household need and not a want as there is still little or no awareness in many locations across Nigeria.
• In Nigeria, the employers and the employees still prefer a face-to-face interaction rather than sending e-mails.
  • Other users can have access to the system provided he or she meets the pre condition
  • Unacceptable changes can be made to any of the editable information details i.e. updating false records.
  • Unauthorized staff are banned from getting access to the facility as the case may be

ENTITY RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM OF THE APPLICATION

(ER DIAGRAM)

DATABASE DESIGN FOR THE E-HIRING APPLICATION

Chapter Four

System DESIGN

4.1 System design is change from a user oriented document to programmers or data base personnel. The design is a solution on how to approach the creation of a new system. This is composed of several steps. It provides the understanding and procedural details necessary for implementing the system recommended in the feasibility study. Designing involves the logical and physical stages of development, logical designs reviews the present physical system, prepares input and output specification, details of implementation plan and prepare a logical design walkthrough.

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The database tables are designed by analyzing functions involved in the system and format of the fields is also designed. The fields in the database tables should define their role in the system. The unnecessary fields should be avoided because it affects the storage areas of the system. Then the design of the input and output screen should be made user friendly. The menu should be precise and compact.

4.2 ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM

The newly designed system should improve the workability of the existing system. It would take care of the shortfalls i.e. problems encountered using the manual system of recruitment. It will have a self service module for the applicant’s registration. The proposed system will be user friendly which makes it easier, faster, and more reliable to use. For this project, the platform will have a web site which any user of internet can access. Once the applicants have registered they can send their details and the system will automatically store them in the respective fields.

The user should be able to:

1. Login to the system through the first page of application
2. Centralize and automate administration of the application at the departmental level.
3. Use self-service and self-guided services (applicants registration)

4. Consolidate recruitment activities on a scalable web-based platform
5. Support portability and standards
6. Personalize content and enable exchange of applicants
7. Manage applicants
8. Handle applicant selection and sending of mails to successful applicants
9. Display scores and transcripts

4.1 SOFTWARE DESIGN: –

ARCHITECTURE OF THE NEW SYSTEM

In designing the software certain principles are followed:

1. Modularity and partitioning: Software is designed such that, each system should consist of a hierarchy of modules, partitioned to carry out specific functions.

2. Coupling: Modules should have little dependence on other modules of a system.

3. Cohesion: Modules should carry out a single processing function.

4. Shared use: Avoid duplication by allowing a single module to be called by others that need the function it provides.

4.2 PROCESS REQUIREMENTS USE-CASE MODELLING

The main objective of constructing the requirements use-case model is to elicit and analyze requirements information which helps to prepare a model that communicates what is required from a user perspective but is free of specific details of how the system will be built and implemented. Cockburn, A (2001), notes that “a use case captures a contract, describes the system’s behavior under various conditions as the system responds to a request from one of its stakeholders”. In essence, a use case explains in a nut shell how a user (who can play a number of roles) interacts with the system under a specific set of circumstances. Pressman, S.R (2010), describes Use Case as how a user interacts with the system by defining the steps required to accomplish a specific goal. Using this approach will produce a more robust design that will be in three modules database, business logic and interface. The use of the waterfall system, RAD (rapid application development) with iterative and incremental development allows for the introduction of new requirements later in the project without seriously affecting the development of the final solution. The steps required to produce this model are the following:

1. Identify business actors.
2. Identify business requirement use cases.
3. Construct use-case model diagram.
4. Document business requirement use-case narratives.

The project is expected to address the following areas:-

• Applicants Registration
• job category creation
• job Information Management Module
• shortlisted applicants Information Management Module

The registration and management of the Company asset will contain the following unique information items:

• Name of applicants,
• Applicants details
• Application id,
• emails,
• discipline,
• job description
• grade
• ARCHITECTURE AND DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW SYSTEM
• Because the proposed system is web based and is going to be an ERP (enterprise Resource planning), application staff can Login at anywhere to gain access to the system. The graphical interface that would be adopted for this testing system is one whereby there is a comparison with the conventional login system where one user is permitted to login to the system at a time, multiple user login is impossible. The new system is more reliable and secure, and because it is a web based application, it can be deployed on the central server, where other work stations can be connected to it once they are on the network and users will be able to view the application. This explains the nature of the flexibility of the testing system to be developed.
• 4.5 INPUT DESIGN
• The applicant registration form will be designed such that it will include all information required about the staff job duties. The contents of this form will be similar to the hard copy form currently in use for staff appraisal
• A sample of some of the fields in the applicant Reg form interface is depicted below:

CHAPTER FIVE:

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT

5.1 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION OVERVIEW

The development of the recruitment (E-hiring) system for the HR department of Visafone Company is made up of three layers namely:

1. The Interface Layers.
2. The Middle tier Layers(Business Logic)
3. The Database Structure(Housing the database tables and stored procedures)

This n tier approach to the construction, design and implementation of the project is to ensure that the application is stable and consistent such that any changes on any of the layers will not affect the other layers. For instance, if the database is changed from Microsoft SQL to Oracle, all that needs to be done is a change in connection and not a change in the entire three tier application.

The key called “HR” (located between the two ) is the connection string while the key “SMTP” is the server configuration that connects to the internal mail server to send mails.

A Class (Human.cs) was created as a container for all the methods that will be used by the application because the concepts of object oriented programming was used.

5.1.1 HARDWARE

Windows 7 operating system

Visual studio embedded on Windows 7 operating system for development

Laptop 60GB HDD

2GB RAM

5.1.2 SOFTWARE

Visual studio 2010 C# programming language

SQL 2008 server as back end database

Microsoft Visio 2007

5.2IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURE

Implementation of the web based recruitment application (E-HIRING system) went through many stages which are:

5.2.1 Database Construction

After the installation of Microsoft SQL 2008 server, a new database named HRManagement was created using the SQL Enterprise Manager. The database was constructed using the flowchart designed in the previous chapter such that columns and table attributes needed for the application were created. The following tables and their corresponding parameters were created for this database.

1. tbl_vaccancy
2. tbl_HR
3. tbl_Applicant
4. tbl_ApplicantRegistration
5. tbl_event
6. tbl_department
7. tbl_interviewer
8. tbl_RegisterUser
9. tbl_AllRequest

5.2.2 Web server Configuration

To configure the web server, Microsoft Internet Information Service (IIS) was installed on the machine to be used for hosting the web pages to be accessed.

This is done by: Click Start – Click Control Panel – Click Add/Remove Program – Click Add/Remove Windows Component – Check Internet Information Service – Insert Windows XP CD – Click Next – Click Finish and Reboot the machine.

Click Start – Right Click My Computer and Select Manage – Click Services and Application – Expand the Internet Information Services Icon – Expand Web sites – Right Click Default Web Site – Click on Properties and configure the parameters.

5.2.3Business layer Creation and Referencing

After the installation of Microsoft Visual Studio 2003, the business layer (which has to do with the business logic behind the research project) was created using the namespace FIRSBusinessLayer and the Visual Studio application gives us the Microsoft.ApplicationBlock.Data which is used for the connection to the database. In order to make them usable, they were referenced in the application by doing the following:

Start Visual Studio – Click on HRManagement – Click View and select Solution Explorer (which opens at the side of the page) – Right-click References under HRManagement and click Add Reference which opens the Add Reference box.

Click on Projects button – double click the FIRSBusinessLayer and click ok to add the reference as shown below:

Also double click on the Microsoft.ApplicationBlocks.data and click ok to reference it.

A screenshot of the created methods and properties is shown below:

5.2.4Creation of Interfaces

These were created as modules to give the various methods the expected parameters. Visual Studio was used for designing the interfaces using the control toolbox which consists of textbox, image, buttons and labels. The following interfaces were created and viewed using Windows Explorer:

CHANGEPASSWORD.aspx

createApplicant.aspx

CreateChannelmanager.aspx

RegisterUsers.aspx

setupInterviewers.aspx

aboutus.aspx

AllallocatedApplicant.aspx

AllRegsisteredApplicant.aspx

StaffLogin.aspx

careers.aspx

HOME.aspx

HRADminframe.aspx

HRlogin.aspx

HRmanagement.aspx

HRrespond.aspx

listofjobsforRRespondr.aspx

RecoverPassword.aspx

StaffLogin.aspx

Under Set up folder

createApplicant.aspx

createDepartment.aspx

createHRstaff.aspx

CreateVacancy.aspx

StaffLogin.aspx

SearchAndRequstForApplicant.aspx

SearchAndRequstForvaccancy.aspx

SearchAndRequstForvaccancyByVcancyNo.aspx

StatusOfApllicant.aspx

5.2.5Debugging the Application

The debugging tool is used essentially for testing the application to see if the three tiers (i.e. the database structure, middle tier and Interface) are properly connected. The debugging tool was used severally to see if the application can compile, many errors were displayed and break points were created at suspected sources of error and they were corrected accordingly. To confirm that the application is error free, the following was done:

Open the Project in Visual Studio (i.e. HRManagement in this case) and Click Build solution on the Build button. After successful compilation, it will show “Build Succeed, 0 Skipped, 0 failed”. See screenshot below:

Home.aspx is configured as the start up page for the application and all pages are linked back to the main site by clicking the HOME button on page. To run the application, Click on the Debug button and Click Start, this opens the main site through the browser.

5.3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

In order to effectively run this application, the required minimum hardware specifications are:

Processor Speed: Pentium V, 1.4GHZ

RAM Size: 512MB

A USB port or CD Drive

Display Settings: 1024X768 pixels

Operating System: Windows XP, Windows 2000 or 2003 Server

5.5USER GUIDE/MANUAL

This application is to be used by three groups of people namely:

1. Registered users: These are registered users e.g. staff, interviewers, HR assistant, Admin. etc they can request, check Applicant status, and subsequently view and allocate applicants once they have been properly authenticated by the system. The Administrator manages the software application. He performs administrative tasks such as configuring the application to automatically send mails to selected applicants generate summarized reports and create personnel. He can also Create HR Managers, Create Registered Users and Create Interviewers etc.
2. HR personnel: These are also the soul of the software they can see all Applicants application on the system, they can also authorize/select, delete, hire, they can also create other users in the system, can close vacancy, create applicant, create interviewers and allocate interviews.
3. Applicants: This is the person that applies for a vacancy or one that has chosen to apply into the various jobs vacancies advertised. He uses the application by applying for the various openings, and when applied a reference number is generated .With the reference number he/she can check the status of its application .i.e. hired, rejected and if vacancy is still available. Once he has submitted its application into the system, he/she can also edit some of its profile.

CHAPTER SIX:

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 ACHIEVEMENTS

The following were achieved by the project:

• Uncover savings through business process improvement and support for strategic decision making
• Gained control of the Recruitment process
• Increased accountability to ensure compliance
• Enhanced performance of assets and the life cycle management
• Risk reduction through standardization and tracking, proper documentation, loss of records ,detection of employees records
• Align IT with business goals to support business decisions

6.2 LIMITATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS

The limitations encountered in the course of this project are as follows:

• Because this project has to do with recruitments, the various security measures put in place by other companies visited and this made it difficult to get more information. No company wants to divulge its security information i.e. personnel records
• Limited materials available to specifically address the project goals
• Limited time to develop the application
• Lack of enough programming skills to come up with something better than this in terms of project delivery

6.3 AREAS OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

While I believe a great work has been done in the development of an e-hiring recruitment processing systems for the HR department, the following still needs to be addressed:

• The system should be integrated with an SMS alert system using a third party provider system
• The application needs to be tested by so many users to ascertain its durability
• It database needs to be upgraded to SQL 2008 full version
• The system should provide high level-based approval process in order to improve security and hasten requisition process.
• It should provide capabilities to aid IT infrastructure staff knowing what IT assets they have, where they are and their status.
• Provide an avenue for easy IT Asset movement and assignment.
• An encryption algorithm was not used for the database as it’s not designed for commercial use and resident only on my system for project purposes. However the research work is open to further development by whoever deems it fit.

6.4 RECOMMENDATIONS

Due to the deficiencies of the current method and the need to improve the method, there is a need for a web based recruitment processing system, that reduces or totally eliminates paper involvement, providing accurate inventory status report, ease decision making, and provides an avenue where by each IT asset can be tracked, assigned and re-assigned.

6.5 CONCLUSION

It is expected that the E-hiring (Recruitment) system should help to increase productivity to the organization through sourcing for qualified job seekers. It should help eliminate the burden of space that is needed to store the hard copies of Cvs. Thus, different organizations (governmental and nongovernmental) are expected for source for candidates through the online requirement system. ORS should be the determinants of recruitment due to its benefits which has astounding advantages.