Recruitment

What is Recruitment?

Recruitment is the first step for any organization to procure potential candidates. Recruitment means announcing job opportunities to the public in such a way that a good number of suitable people will apply for them. Or you can say, recruitment is the process of searching for and attracting capable applicants for employment.

The organization must have an effective recruitment policy and process to pass the information about the job vacancies and motivate the candidates to apply for the available vacancies. The effectiveness of the recruitment policy of an organization can be measured in terms of the quality and quantity of the applicant pool it is able to create.

So recruitment is a process that not only helps to fill a vacancy physically, mentally, and temperamentally but also helps to develop an employee into a desirable asset.

There are two main sources of recruitment from which employees may be recruited:

• Internal sources: Recruitment from within the organization
• External sources: Recruitment from outside the organization.

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Definition of Recruitment

Some important definition of recruitment are listed below:

Recruitment is a dynamic process which attracts the right candidates and stimulate them to apply for a right post in the organization.

Flippo

Recruitment means attracting candidates, which is primarily a matter of identifying, evaluating and using the most appropriate source of applicants.

Michael Armstrong

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Sources of Recruitment

There are two main sources of recruitment from which employees may be recruited:

• Internal Sources
  
• External Sources

Internal Sources

Internal sources usually refer to internal applicants who are currently employed in the organization. It is to be understood that there must be active and voluntary participation of the existing employees in the process of recruitment and the organization also has to constantly motivate their employees for internal recruitment. Internal sources include:

• Existing employees
• Former employees
• Employee referrals

External Sources

The external sources of recruitment mean reaching out to the external markets to meet the labor requirements. External sources normally include:

• Employment Exchanges
• Advertisements
• Campus Recruitments
• Walk-ins and Write-ins
• Consultants
• E-recruitment

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Process of Recruitment in Hrm

The 5 different stages in the process of recruitment in hrm include:

• Recruitment Planning
• Recruitment Strategy
• Applicants Pool
• Screening of Applications
• Evaluation

Recruitment Planning

The first stage in the recruitment process is planning. The plan involves information about the vacancies and the nature of jobs that specifies the number and type of applicants to be contacted. Organizations always plan to attract more applicants than vacancies because this gives them better choices to choose from.

Recruitment Strategy

The second stage in the recruitment process is the formulation of a strategy for attracting candidates. It involves identifying the sources of recruitment, specifying the preferences of the candidates, and finalizing methods of recruitment. The job specification helps the quality and quantity of candidates required for the organization. The strategy must be designed in such a way that it attracts more applicants.

Applicants Pool

This is the third stage. Once the organization has a strategy in place regarding where to recruit when to recruit and how to recruit, the main focus shifts to actually attracting more people to apply for the job. The focus is on building as large an applicant pool as possible.

Screening of Applications

In this stage, the HR department has to scrutinize all the applications received on the criteria specified and select only those applications which are suitable for the job requirements. Screening of applications plays a key role since in this stage they have to eliminate the applicants who are not qualified.

Evaluation

In the final stage, the organization has to evaluate the process. Recruitment is a continuous process, and the quality of the applicant pool is an indicator of the effectiveness of the recruitment process. If the process discourages the qualified potential applicants from applying for jobs, restricts the size of the applicant pool or unqualified applicants become the employees of the organization it is an indication that it is not effective and therefore the process has to be changed.

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Factors Affecting Recruitment Process

There are several challenges or factors affecting recruitment process, some of the common factors are discussed here:

• Lack of Time
  
• Adopting New Systems
  
• Globalization
  
• Outsourcing
  
• Linking Job Description
  
• Finding Right Candidate

Lack of Time

The recruitment process is more often driven by the demand for immediate requirements. It is very difficult to get the desired pool of applicants within a short time and it proves to be expensive.

Adopting New Systems

The emerging new systems are both an opportunity as well as a challenging factor for HR professionals. Therefore reviewing staffing needs and prioritizing the tasks to meet the changes in the market has become a challenge for recruitment professionals.

Globalization

Another major challenging factor for organizations is adapting to globalization, which has resulted in a lot of changes in terms of employee expectations, terms of employment, legal framework, cultural implications, etc. Organizations find it difficult to constantly make changes in their recruitment strategies to suit the above developments.

Outsourcing

This is another challenging factor faced by the organization while recruiting. Some organizations outsource their recruitment process to consultants. These consultants face a lot of problems because recently the job market has undergone a lot of changes due to changes in technology and competition in the market. Moreover, the competing organizations started poaching and raiding practices in recruitment.

Linking Job Description

The organization faces difficulty in relating the job description to the resume of the candidates. This is often a time-consuming and complex process.

Finding Right Candidate

The organization may face a challenge while recruiting candidates in finding out the right candidate due to various organizational differences, cultural differences, and attitudes

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Methods of Recruitment

Various methods adopted for recruitment are discussed below:

Direct Method of Recruitment

In this method, the representatives of the organizations are directly sent to establish contact with the potential candidates seeking jobs.

• Employee Contacts: This method is adopted for recruiting candidates by way of existing employees giving information about the suitable candidates to fill the vacancies. The existing employees have some contacts like their relatives or friends so the organization can seek their involvement to approach candidates for recruitment.
  
  
• E-recruitment: E-recruitment, also known as online recruitment, is the practice of using technology and in particular web-based resources for tasks involved with finding, attracting, assessing, interviewing, and hiring new personnel.
  
  
• Manned exhibits: In this method representatives of the organization are sent to seminars and conventions where they can establish their mobile offices and attract suitable candidates to apply for jobs in the organization.
  
  
• Waiting lists: In this method, the candidates who have indicated their interest in jobs in person through mail or phone are contacted and invited by the organization.
  
  
• Job fairs: In this method, one of the educational institutions acts as a host and conducts the program by inviting students from other colleges as well.
  
  
• Poaching and Raiding: Poaching means attracting the employees of rival organizations with attractive offers. Organizations may directly or indirectly contact the talented employees of their rivals and gradually persuade these employees to join them.

Indirect Methods of Recruitment

• Advertisements: The organization gives advertisements in newspapers, journals, and magazines, radio, television, etc. to publicize vacancies.
  
  
• Job portals: In this method of recruitment the organization posts the vacancies with job descriptions and job specifications on the job portals and also searches for suitable resumes posted on the site corresponding to the openings in the organization.
  
  
• Employment Exchanges: These are the employment exchanges established by respective state governments. The job seekers register their names with their respective qualifications. The employment exchanges match the qualifications with the jobs notified by the organizations.
  
  
• Consultancy firms: In many cases companies rely on consultancies for recruitment. These consultancies provide recruitment services for organizations.

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FAQs Related to Recruitment