Recruitment and Selection

Although the field of personnel management has been with us for nearly seventy years only
recently there has been some major re-direction concerning its importance. Increasing
complexity and size of most organisations has resulted in multiple layers of bureaucracy. All
organisations and establishments have realised the increasing costs of manpower. Recent
researches have developed a perspective of strategic human resources management. This
perspective essentially takes a broader and more integrated view of the personnel function. It
seeks to link the personnel function to the long-term strategies of an organisation and asks
how it can facilitate the accomplishment of those strategies and goals. More concern with
careers and life satisfaction are also causing organisations to re-examine traditional
assumptions about career-planning to provide more alternative career opportunities as also to
take into account employees’ lifestyle needs when transferring them

Here we define the four steps taken in the order given before a person starts his or her
training for the job to which one is assigned :

1) Recruitment: Recruitment is the process of identifying the prospective employees,

stimulating and encouraging them to apply for a particular job or jobs in an organisation. It is
a positive action as it involves inviting people to apply. The purpose is to have an inventory
of eligible persons from amongst whom proper selection of the most suitable person can be
made.

2) Selection: Selection is the process of examining the applicants with regard to their
suitability for the given job or jobs, and choosing the best from the suitable candidates and
rejecting the others (Thus, you will notice that this process is negative in nature in the sense
that rejection of candidates is involved.)

3) Placement: Placement is the determination of the job for which a selected candidate is best
suited and assigning that job to him or her. The ideal situation is ‘the right person for the right
job’. A proper placement of a worker reduces employee turnover, absenteeism, accident rates,
etc., and improves morale, motivation, work, etc.

4) Induction: Induction is introducing an employee to the job and to the organisation. The
primary purpose of induction is to ‘sell’ the company to the new employee so that he or she
may feel proud of his or her association with the company. This is called ‘orientation’ or
‘introduction’.

Human resource planning (HRP)

Planning the right man for right job and developing him into effective team member is an
important function of every manager. It is because HR is an important corporate asset and
performance of organisations depends upon the way it is put in use. HRP is a deliberate
strategy for acquisition, improvement and preservation of enterprise’s human resources. It is
a managerial function aimed at coordinating the requirements, for and availability of different
types of employees. This involves ensuring that the organisation has enough of right kind of
people at right time and also adjusting the requirements to the available supply.

Human resource planning is a decision making process that combines three important
activities
(1) identifying and acquiring the right number of people with the proper skills,
(2) motivating them to achieve high performance, and
(3) creating interactive links between business objectives and resource planning activities.

In simple words HRP is understood as the process of forecasting an organisation’s future

human resource demand for, and supply to meet the objectives such as the right type of
people in the right number. After this process only the HRM department can initiate
recruitment and selection process. HRP is a sub-system in the total organisational planning.
Organisational planning includes managerial activities that set the company’s objectives for
the future and determines appropriate means for achieving those objectives. HRP facilitates
the realization of the company’s objectives for the future and determines appropriate means
for achieving those objectives. HRP also facilitates the realization of the company’s
objectives by providing the right type and the right number of personnel. HRP is variously
called manpower planning, personnel planning or employment planning.

There are nine types of plans, such as, philosophy, purpose, objectives, strategies, policies,
procedures and rules, programmes and budgets. Now we shall discuss in brief each of these
types of plans.
1) Philosophy: The organisations’ role that they wish to play in society in terms of
philosophy. The philosophy of the company should have clarity of thought and action in the
accomplishment of economic objectives of a country. The philosophy bridges the gap
between society and the company.
2) Purpose: Every kind of organized group activities or operations has a purpose. For
example, the purpose of a bank is to accept deposits and grant loans and advances.
3) Objectives: Objectives are the ends towards which organisational activity is aimed. Every
department has its own objectives which may not be completely same as of the other
department or organisation.
4) Strategies: Strategy is determination of the basic long term objectives of an enterprise and
the adoption of courses of action and allocation of resources necessary to achieve these goals.
5) Policies: Policies are general statements or understandings which guide or direct thinking
and action in decision making. However, all policies are not statements.
6) Procedure and Rules: Procedures are plans that establish a desired method of handling
future activities. They detail the exact manner in which a certain activity must be
accomplished.
7) Programmes: These are complexes of goals, policies, procedures, task assigment rules,
steps to be taken, or sources to be employed and other elements necessary to carry out a given
course of action.
8) Budget: A budget is a statement of expected results in terms of members. It may be
referred to as a numerical programme. Cash budget, sales budget, capital expenditure budget
are some of the examples of budget.

HR Demand Forecast Demand forecast is the process of estimating the future quantity and
quality of people required. The basis of the forecast must be the annual budget and long term
corporate plan, translated into activity levels for each function and department. Demand
forecasting must consider several factors — both external as well as internal. The external
factors are competition, economic climate, laws and regulatory bodies, changes in technology
and social factors. Internal factors include budget constraints, production levels, new products
and services, organisational structure and employee separations.

HR Supply Forecast Personnel Demand analysis provides the manager with the means of
estimating the number and kind of employees that will be required. The next step for the
management is to determine whether it will be able to procure the required number of
personnel and the sources for such procurement. This information is provided by supply
forecasting. Supply forecasting measures the number of people likely to be available from
within and outside an organisation, after making allowance for absenteeism, internal
movements and promotions, wastage and changes in hours and other conditions of work.

New Venture Analysis New venture analysis will be useful when new ventures contemplate
employment planning. This technique requires planners to estimate HR needs in line with
companies that perform similar operations. For example, a petroleum company that plans to
open a coal mine can estimate its future employment by determining employment levels of
other coal mines.

HRP is required to meet following objectives:

1) Forecast HR requirement. HR Demand Forecast and HR Supply Forecast
2) Cope-up with the change — in market conditions, technologies, products, government
regulations and policies, etc.
3) Use existing HR productivity.
4) Promote employees in a systematic manner.

If used properly, it offers a number of benefits: 1) Create reservoir of talent. 2) Prepares

people for future. 3) Expand or contract. 4) Cut cost. 5) Succession planning.

Human resource planning is deemed necessary for all organisations for one or the other of
the following reasons:

i) To carry on its work, each organisation needs personnel with the necessary qualifications,
skills, knowledge, work experience and aptitude for work. These are provided through
effective manpower planning.
ii) Since a large number of persons have to be replaced who have grown old, or who retire,
die or become incapacitated because of physical or mental ailments, there is a constant
need for replacing such personnel. Otherwise, the work would suffer.
iii) Human resource planning is essential because of frequent labour turnover which is
unavoidable and even beneficial because it arises from factors which are socially and
economically sound such as voluntary quits, discharges, marriage, promotions; or factors
such as seasonal and cyclical fluctuations in business which cause a constant ebb and flow in
the work force in many organisations.
iv) In order to meet the needs of expansion programmes (which become necessary because
of increase in the demand for goods and services by a growing population, a rising standard
of living-which calls for larger quantities of the same goods and services as also for new
goods; the competitive position of firm which brings it more business arising from
improvements effected in the slump period; and the rate of growth of the organisation),
human resource planning is unavoidable.
v) The nature of the present work force in relation to its changing needs also necessitates
the recruitment of new labour. To meet the challenge of a new and changing technology
and new techniques of production, existing employees need to be trained or new blood
injected in an organisation. ,
vi) Manpower planning is also needed in order to identify areas of surplus personnel or
areas in which there is a shortage of personnel. If there is a surplus, it can be i redeployed;
and if there is shortage, it may be made good.

Employee recruitment

Policy formulation is an essential managerial function. It is a complicated process which may

involve all levels of employees. While formulating a policy an attempt has to be made
keeping in view the values and objectives of the different groups involved so as to raise
efficiency of working relationships in an organisation. Moreover, the policy shall have to be
in line with the employee requirements to attain the organisation’s objectives.

Recruitment is essentially a process to discover and identify sources to obtain employees and
to employ effective measures for contacting those employees, which will be forming an
efficient workforce. It will suffice to understand that the recruitment programme involves
five different elements, which include; a recruiting organisation, process of recruitment, a
forecast of manpower requirements, the development of man-power sources and techniques
for utilising these sources.

It is a vital function of personnel administration and is an essential pre-requisite for the

effectiveness and success of an organisation.

Sources of Manpower There are two categories of sources of supply of manpower–Internal

and External.

• Internal Sources: These include personnel already on the pay-roll of the organisation as also
those who were once on the pay-roll of the company but who plan to return, or whom the
company would like to rehire. These include those who quit voluntarily or those on
production lay-offs.

• External Sources: These sources lie outside the organisation. These include college
students, the new entrants, the unemployed with a wider range of skills and abilities, the
retired experienced persons, and others who are looking for jobs. This also includes those
whom you hire from outside for specific jobs like guides, tour escorts, etc.

All methods of recruitment can be put into three categories : (i) Direct Methods, (ii) Indirect
Methods, and (iii) Third-Party Methods.

i) Direct Methods include sending recruiters to educational and professional institutions,

employee contacts with public, manned exhibits and waiting lists. Schools and Colleges : For
clerical, labour and apprenticeship help, polytechnics can be extensively used. For technical,
managerial and professional jobs, colleges, university departments and specialised institutes
are used. These institutions usually have a placement officer or a teacher-in-charge of
placement, who normally provides help in attracting employers, arranging interviews,
furnishing space and other facilities and providing student resumes. The companies maintain
a list of such institutions, keep in touch with them, send their brochures indicating job
openings, future prospects, etc. On the basis of these students who want to be considered for
the given job(s) are referred to the company recruiter and campus interviews are conducted
for recruitment. This is a common method among hotels and travel agencies.
Employees’ Contact with the Public : The employees of the organisation are told about the
existence of particular vacancies and they bring this to the notice of their relatives, friends
and acquaintances who have the relevant qualification. This is also a common method of
recruitment in small travel agencies, tour operations and hotels.

Manned Exhibits : The organisations send recruiters to conventions and seminars, setting up
exhibits at fairs, and using mobile offices to go to the desired centres. This method is
generally used by large organisations.

Waiting Lists: Many firms lean heavily on their own application files. These records list
individuals who have indicated their interest in jobs, either after visiting the organisation’s
employment office or making enquiries by mail or phone. Such records prove a very useful
source if they are kept up-to-date.

ii) Indirect Methods: These cover advertising in newspapers, on the electronic media, in trade
and professional journals, technical journals and brochures.

iii) Third-Party Methods : Various agencies are used for recruitment under these methods.
These include commercial and private employment agencies, state agencies, recruiting firms,
and management consulting firms. In the tourism industry these methods are used particularly
for those jobs which are seasonal in nature.

Private Placement Agencies specialise in specific occupation like general office help,
salesmen, technical workers, accountants, computer staff, engineers, guides and tour
executives, etc. These agencies bring together the employers and suitable persons available
for a job. Because of their specialisation, they can interpret the needs of their clients and seek
out particular types of persons.

State or Public Employment Agencies, also known as Employment or Labour Exchanges, are
the main agencies for public employment. They also provide a wide range of services, like
counselling, assistance in getting jobs, information about the labour market, labour and wage
rates, etc.

Executive Search Agencies maintain complete information records about employed

executives and recommend persons of high calibre for managerial, marketing and production
engineers’ posts. These agencies are looked upon as ‘head hunters’, ‘raiders’, and ‘pirates’.
Professional Societies may provide leads and clues in providing promising candidates for
engineering, technical and all management positions. Some of these maintain mail order
placement services.

Temporary Help Agencies employ their own labour force, both full-time and part-time and
make them available to their client organisation for temporary needs. Casual Labour Source
is one which presents itself daily at the factory gate or employment office. Most industrial
units rely to some extent on this source. This source, you will realise, is the most uncertain of
all sources.