Recruitment: Definition, Meaning, and Purpose

Recruitment Definition

• Recruitment is the process of finding and attracting qualified individuals for employment.
• It starts with seeking new recruits and concludes when applications are submitted, creating a pool of potential hires.

Meaning of Recruitment

• Recruitment involves actively searching for and obtaining job applicants, with the goal of selecting suitable candidates.
• While theoretically ending with application receipt, the process includes screening to eliminate unqualified applicants.

Purpose and Importance of Recruitment

• Determine current and future staffing needs in line with HR planning and job analysis.
• Expand the pool of qualified candidates cost-effectively.
• Improve selection success by weeding out under- or over-qualified applicants.
• Minimize the likelihood of premature employee turnover.
• Fulfill legal and social obligations related to employment.
• Identify and cultivate potential future employees.
• Assess the effectiveness of recruitment methods and sources.

Factors Governing Recruitment

• External factors include:
  • Supply and demand of specific skills
  • Regional unemployment rates
  • Labor market conditions
  • The political and legal landscape including reservations and labor laws
  • Company image
• Internal Factors include:
  • Recruitment policies (internal vs. external hiring)
  • HR planning
  • Organizational size
  • Costs
  • Growth and expansion plans

Methods of Recruitment

• Can be broken down into two main sources: Internal and External

Internal Sources of Recruitment

• Internal recruitment involves appointing employees from within the organization.
• Candidates are those already employed in similar roles.
• Internal recruitment should be considered first for staffing.
• It provides growth opportunities and utilizes existing resources.
• It is considered best practice to choose resources as their work is already known.

Promotions

• Promotion involves advancing employees based on performance.
• Employees move from lower to higher positions with increased responsibilities, pay, benefits, and status.
• Many organizations use promotions to fill vacancies internally.

Transfers

• Transfers involve moving employees from one job to another without changes in rank or duties.
• It could also mean changing employees from one department or location to another, based on the requirements of the position.

Recruiting Former Employees

• A process of internal recruitment of hiring former employees back.
• Cost effective and saves time.
• Advantageous because they are already experienced with the roles and tasks of the job so less training and development is needed.

Internal Advertisements (Job Posting)

• Involves promoting open positions within the organization.
• It is an open invitation for existing employees to apply for vacant roles.
• Providing equal opportunities and saving costs as recruitment is internal.

Employee Referrals

• This allows hiring suitable candidates at a lower cost.
• Involves hiring based on recommendations from current employees.
• Employees recommending friends and relatives.
• It can be cost-effective and can save time.
• Some organizations offer referral bonuses for successful hires.

Previous Applicants

• Reviewing profiles of past applicants from the organization's database.
• This can be advanced and may be optimistic in filling up positions as resources can be simple and the reply may be optimistic in most cases.
• Cost-effective way to fill vacancies.

Pros and Cons of Internal Sources of Recruitment

• Hiring staff within the organization has benefits and drawbacks

Advantages of Internal Recruitment

• Easy, quick, and cost effective
• Reduced need for extensive training, as candidates are already familiar with the job/responsibilities.
• Boosts employee morale and promotes stronger workplace relationships.
• Builds employee loyalty.

Disadvantages of Internal Recruitment

• May limit the influx of new ideas and resources.
• Limited scope, as it cannot fill all vacant positions.
• Can cause internal conflicts among employees.
• Creates another vacancy if an internal resource is promoted or transferred.
• Can lead to unhappiness and demotivation for those not promoted.

External Sources of Recruitment

• Hiring staff from outside the organization.
• It brings fresh perspectives.
• It drives the organization forward but can be costly.

Direct Recruitment

• External recruitment method that involves posting a notice of job openings on the company noticeboard.
• Also known as factory gate recruitment as it typically hires blue-collar and technical workers.

Employment Exchanges

• Organizations provide job vacancy details to employment exchanges, as required by law for certain positions.
• Government agencies store and provide job seeker information to employers.
• Helpful for hiring unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled workers.

Employment Agencies

• Can be public, private, or governmental.
• Agencies offer candidates for both skilled and un-skilled positions to suit organizational needs.
• Databases of applicants are on file for organizations to use at a cost.

Advertisements

• Using print and electronic media to notify of a job vacancy.
• Need a precise job description and stipulations of the requirements.
• Allows for short candidate sourcing, and offers an organized approach to screening candidates.

Professional Associations

• Helps find professional, technical, and managerial staff.
• Relations between the administrations and job seekers act as a bridge.
• Helps business groups sign professional.

Campus Recruitment

• External recruitment at educational institutions.
• Colleges and universities offer hiring opportunities for students.
• Organizations go to technical, management and professional institutions to recruit students for new positions.

Word of Mouth Advertising

• Attracts candidates to fill empty positions in reputable administrations with good image in the market.
• To attract candidates to a job opening, only a word-of-mouth advertisement is required.

Pros and Cons of External Sources of Recruitment

• Employing staffs outside of the organization can both have their benefits and disadvantages.

Advantages of External Recruitment

• Introduces new ideas and chances for job seekers.
• Improves the image of the organization.
• Eliminates bias and partiality among employees.
• Larger pool of candidates allows for better selection.

Difficulties of External Recruitment

• More time consuming due to the lengthy selection process.
• Higher costs compared to internal recruitment.
• Higher salary and benefits are often expected.

Recruitment Process

• Recruitment planning
• Strategy development
• Searching
• Screening
• Evaluation and control

Recruitment Planning

• Number of contacts.
• Types of contacts.

Recruitment Strategy Development

• Make of buy employees.
• Technological Sophistication
• Where to look
• How to look.

Internal Recruitment (Source 1)

• Present employees
• Employee referrals
• Transfers and promotions
• Former employees.
• Previous applicants
• Evaluation of Internal Recruitment.

External Recruitment (Source 2)

• Professionals or trade associations
• Advertisements
• Employment exchanges
• Campus recruitment
• Walk-ins interviews
• Consultants
• Contractors
• Displaced Persons
• Radio & Television
• Acquisitions & Mergers
• Competitors
• Evaluation of Internal Recruitment.

Searching

• Source activation
• Selling
• Screening of Applications.

Evaluation and Cost Control

• Salary cost
• Management & Professional Time spent
• Advertisement cost
• Producing supporting literature
• Recruitment Overheads and expenses
• Cost of overtime and outsourcing
• Consultant's fees

Evaluation of Recruitment Process

• Return rate of applications sent out.
• Suitable candidates for selection
• Retention and performance of selected candidates
• Recruitment cost
• time lapsed data.
• Image projection.

Internal Recruitment: Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages include reduced costs, familiarity with candidates to the organization.
• Disadvantages include the possibility of limiting innovation and potentially causing morale issues among existing employees.

External Recruitment Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages include infusion of new skills, ensures compliance policy and experiences.
• Disadvantages include increased costs, the potential for negative impacts on internal morale, and longer adjustment times for new hires.

Selection

• Selection involves choosing individuals from a pool of applicants based on qualifications and competence.
• Selections aims to differentiate applicants to identify and then hire those with a greater likelihood of success in a job.

Recruitment vs. Selection

• Recruitment identifies and encourages potential employees to apply for jobs.
• Selection focuses on choosing suitable candidates from the applicant pool.
• Recruitment has a positive approach while selection has a negative approach.

Process / Steps in Selection

• Preliminary Interview, Selection Tests, Employment Interview, Reference and Background Checks, Selection Decision, Physical Examination, Job Offer, Contract of Employment

Preliminary Interview

• The aim is to eliminate unqualified applications based on supplied information by the applicant.
• To reject those unsuitable and have good public relations.

Selection Tests

• Jobseekers must pass the interviews to be tested.
• These tests depend on the jobs and the company.
• Aptitude Tests, Personality Tests, and Ability Tests or Interest, Graphology, Medical, Psychometric and many more.

Employment Interview

• A formal step in the selection process.
• To test the applicant's acceptability.
• Excellent for selection devices.
• Can be One-to-One, Panel, or Sequential. Structured or Una-structured, Behavioral, or Stress interviews.

Reference & Background Checks

• Verify the information provided by the candidates
• Reference checks can be through formal letters and telephone conversations.
• Can be a formality however selections decisions are seldom affected by it.

Selection Decision

• The final decision made from applicants who have passed preliminary interviews, tests, final interviews and reference checks.
• Line managers views are considered as they are responsible for the new employee performance.

Physical Examination

• Candidates undergo a physical fitness test when the selection has been made.
• Contingent that they pass this

Job Offer

• The next step is for applicants who have crossed hurdles to get a job offer.
• It is made through a letter of appointment.

Contract of Employment

• Formal contract of employment, containing written contractual terms of employment for both employer and candidates after job offer is accepted.

Essentials of a Good Selection Practice

• Detailed positions and job specifications made and approved by personnel and line management.
• Trained the selectors
• Determine aids to be used for selection process
• Check competence of recruitment consultants before retention
• Involve line managers at all stages
• Attempt to validate the procedure
• Help the appointed candidate to succeed by training and management development.

Barriers to Effective Selection

• Perception
• Fairness
• Validity
• Reliability
• Pressure
• Barriers of fairness includes discrimination against religion, region, race or gender etc.

Online Recruitment

• Uses the internet to provide information about jobs and the organization.
• Enables e-mail communication between employers and candidates.
• Applicants apply jobs online and can e-mail their CV.
• Can be completed online.
• Use Web 2.0 websites like Linkedin which provides profiles.
• Corporate websites, commercial job boards and agency sites cover the main types of online sites.

Corporate Websites

• List vacancies and contact details, as well as dedicated areas with details of vacancies, person specifications, benefits and how to apply for jobs.
• Intranet links may be available for internal staff, and outsource the management of the website to recruitment consultants.

Commercial Job Boards

• Specialized firms consist of large databanks of vacancies that companies can pay to have their jobs listed.
• Site can be an additional form of communication, but some are only found online with links to the organization's website.

Agency Sites

• Run by established recruitment agencies.
• They register the candidates online.
• They are expected to discuss details in person before potentially being forwarded to a prospective employer.

Advantages and disadvantages of online recruiting

• The advantages: wider range of application, can reach applications quicker and easier than traditional methods.
• More details of jobs can be supplied on the site, CVs can be matched and applications can be submitted electronically.
• The disadvantages: produce poor applications and irrelevant or poor applications and it isn't the firs choice of many job seekers.

Induction & Orientation

• Planned introduction of employees to their jobs, co-workers and the organization.

Orientation

• Conveys 4 types of information: Daily Routine, Organization Profile, Importance of Jobs, and Orientation Presentations.

Purpose of Orientation

• Make employees feel at home and remove anxiety about the workplace.
• Remove inadequacies about new peers. Also remove worries about the job performance and provide with job and environmental information.

Types of Orientation Programs

• Formal or Informal
• Individual or Group
• Serial or Disjunctive.

Prerequisites of Effective Orientation Program

• Prepare for receiving a new employee.
• Determine information new employee wants to know and how to present it and the completion of paperwork.

Problems of Orientations

• Busy supervisor
• Too much information, overloaded with paperwork.
• Giving menial tasks or demanding tasks could discourage interests or higher failure.

Induction vs. Orientation

• Induction previously referred to formal training programs an employee would complete before they could start work.
• Orientation was the informal giving, that made the recruit aware of the comfort zone issue, regarding certain expectations.

Induction Processes

• The process should begin with the job ad, selection and concludes when the team is comfortable as contributors.
• First day: signing in, emergency codes, issuing keys and passwords, explaining no go zones, are critical as they should be done on the first instance.
• Content can be expanded as new duties are undertaken.
• Integrated new people is simple, than not taking the same time to train.