Recruitment
It is the discovering of potential of applicants for actual or anticipated
organizational vacancies. It actually links together those with jobs and those
seeking jobs.
Flippo's definition: "It is a process of searching for prospective employees
and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an
organization."
Thus the purpose of recruitment is to locate sources of manpower to meet job
requirements and job specifications.
Factors affecting Recruitment:
1. The size of the organization.
2. The employment conditions in the community where the organization is located.
3. The effects of past recruiting efforts which show the organization's ability to
locate and retain the good performing people.
4. Working conditions, salary and benefit packages offered by the organization.
5. Rate of growth of the organization.
6. The future expansion and production programs.
7. Cultural, economic and legal factors.
However these factors may be divided specifically as Internal and External factors.
Internal Factors:
1. Recruitment policy of the organization
2. Human resource planning strategy of the company
3. Size of the organization and number of people employed
4. Cost involved in recruiting employees
5. Growth and expansion plans of the organization
External Factors:
1. Supply and demand of specific skills in the labour market.
2. Political and legal factors like reservations of jobs for specific sections of society
etc
3. The job seekers image perception of the company.
Steps of a Recruitment Process:
Personnel recruitment process involves five elements:
1. A recruitment policy
2. A recruitment organization
3. A forecast of manpower
4. The development of sources of recruitment
5. Different techniques used for utilizing these sources & a method of assessing the
recruitment program
These five elements are further elaborated below:
1. Recruitment Policy: It defines the objective of the recruitment and also
provides a framework for the implementation of the recruitment program. The
policy should be based upon corporate goals and needs. The criteria for selection
and preferences should include merit and suitability.
2. Recruitment organization: It is necessary to centralize the recruitment and
selection function in a single office. This will bring about maximum efficiency and
success in hiring. This centralized office is known as the Employee Office or the
Recruitment Section.
3. Forecast of Manpower: This usually specifies:
a. Jobs or Operations for which the person should be available.
b. Duration of their employment.
c. Salary to be offered & terms of the employment
d. Necessary qualification and experience
4. Sources of Recruitment: There can be two kinds of sources for recruitment:
a. Internal – This includes personnel already on the payroll of an organization.
Whenever there is a vacancy, somebody within the organization fills in or is
upgraded.
b. External – These sources lie outside the organization.
5. Methods of Recruitment: The possible recruiting methods can be divided into
three categories:
a. Direct – In this method, recruiters visit colleges and technical schools, e.g.
Infosys, the Tata Group, Accenture, IBM, Siemens and several other companies
maintain continuous relationship with institutions to hire students for responsible
positions.
b. Indirect – This involves advertising in newspaper, radio, T.V., journals etc.
Advertising can be very effective if its media is properly chosen.
c. Third Party methods – This include use of commercial or private employment
agencies, placement officials of schools, recruitment firms etc. Friends and relatives
of present employees are also a good source from which employees may be drawn
as part of the "Buddy Referral" programs.
Thus broadly the Personnel Recruitment Process can be mapped in a Flowchart as
below:
Personnel/Human Resource Planning -> Locating needed Personnel ->
Selecting Qualified Personnel -> Placing New Employees on the Job
Selection Procedure
The Main Objective of a selection procedure is to determine whether an applicant
meets the qualification for a specific job, and then to choose the applicant who is
most likely to perform well in that job.
The entire process of selection begins with an initial screening interview and
concludes with a final employment decision. When a selection policy is formulated,
organizational requirement like technical and professional dimensions are kept in
mind.
Steps in selection procedure:
1. Reception of applications or preliminary screening
2. Application bank that gives a detail about the applicant's background and life
history
3. A well conducted interview to explore the applicant's background
4. The physical examination
5. Psychological testing that gives an objective look at a candidates suitability for
that job
6. A reference check
7. Final Selection approved by the manager
8. Communication of the decision to the candidate.
Therefore the Selection Process can be pictorially represented in a flowchart as
below:
Establishing Selection Process -> Identifying & choosing selection criteria
-> Gathering information about potential employees -> Evaluating
information for assessing applicant -> Making decision to select or reject
-> Communicating decision
Thus the selection process should be planned such that human resource is
efficiently used. The right person for the right job and inducting her/him into the
organization or department successfully is the basic criteria of the entire process.
Main Recruitment Process Steps
The aim of the HRM Function is keeping the recruitment process design as simple as possible. The
HR Recruiters should not forget about this main goal during the design phase of the recruitment
process development.
The recruitment process is simple on the high level, but it contains a lot of interaction among
different participants in the recruitment process. The HRM Function, the line manager and
candidates need to receive and share a lot of information and their interaction is usually the main
issue during the recruitment process.
The main steps of the recruitment process are:
1. Job Design
2. Opening Job Position
3. Collecting Job Resumes
4. Preselection of Job Resumes
5. Job Interviews
6. Job Offer
The job design is the most important part of the recruitment process. The job design is a phase
about design of the job profile and a clear agreement between the line manager and the HRM
Function. The Job Design is about the the agreement about the profile of the ideal job candidate and
the agreement about the skills and competencies, which are essential. The information gathered
can be used during other steps of the recruitment process to speed it up.
The Opening of the Job Position is generally the job of the HR Recruiter. Skilled and experienced HR
Recruiter should decide about the right mix of the recruitment sources to find the best candidates
for the job position. This is another key step in the recruitment process.
The next step is collecting of job resumes and their preselection. This step in the recruitment
process is very important today as many organization lose a lot of time in this step. Today, the
organization cannot wait with the preselection of the job resumes. Generally, this should be the last
step done purely by the HRM Function.
The job interviews are the main step in the recruitment process, which should be clearly designed
and agreed between HRM and the line management. The job interview should discover the job
candidate, who meets the requirements and fits best the corporate culture and the department.
The job offer is the last step of the recruitment process, which is done by the HRM Function, it
finalizes all the other steps and the winner of the job interviews gets the offer from the organization
to join.
