RECRUITMENT -HUMAN RESOURCE

RECRUITMENT-HUMAN RESOURCE

       MEANING    

• According to Edwin B. Flippo, “Recruitment is the process of searching the candidates for employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization.”

• According to Yoder, “Recruitment is a process to discover the sources of manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of an efficient working force.”

• Dale S. Beach à “Recruitment is the development and maintenance of adequate manpower resources. It involves the creation of a pool of available labor upon whom the organization can draw when it needs additional employees.”

• Recruitment is the activity that links the employers and the job seekers.

• It is a process of finding and attracting capable applicants for employment. It begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applications are submitted. The result is a pool of applications from which new employees are selected.

• It is the process to discover sources of manpower to meet the requirement of staffing schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of an efficient working force.

• Recruitment of candidates is the function preceding the selection, which helps create a pool of prospective employees for the organization so that the management can select the right candidate for the right job from this pool. The main objective of the recruitment process is to expedite the selection process.

• Recruitment is a continuous process whereby the firm attempts to develop a pool of qualified applicants for the future human resources needs even though specific vacancies do not exist. Usually, the recruitment process starts when a manger initiates an employee requisition for a specific vacancy or an anticipated vacancy.

RECRUITMENT NEEDS

1. Planned: the needs that arise from changes in organization and retirement policy.
2. Anticipated: Anticipated needs are those movements in personnel, which an organization can predict by studying trends in internal and external environment.
3. Unexpected: resignation, deaths, accidents, illness give rise to unexpected needs.

FEATURES

1. Process (series of activities)
2. Linking Activity
3. Positive Function
4. Basic Purpose à Locate and Attract
5. Pervasive
6. Two –way process
7. Complex job

OBJECTIVES

1. to attract people with multi-dimensional skills and experiences that suit the present and future organizational strategies
2. to induct outsiders with a new perspective to lead the company
3. to infuse fresh blood at all levels of the organization
4. to develop an organizational culture that attracts competent people to the company
5. to search or head hunt people whose skills fit the company’s values
6. to devise methodologies for assessing psychological traits
7. to seek out non-conventional development grounds of talent
8. to search fro talent globally and not just within the company
9. to anticipate and find people for positions that do not exist yet

PURPOSE & IMPORTANCE

1. Attract and encourage more and more candidates to apply in the organization.
2. Create a talent pool of candidates to enable the selection of best candidates for the organization.
3. Determine present and future requirements of the organization in conjunction with its personnel planning and job analysis activities.
4. Recruitment is the process which links the employers with the employees.
5. Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost.
6. Help increase the success rate of selection process by decreasing number of visibly under qualified or overqualified job applicants.
7. Help reduce the probability that job applicants once recruited and selected will leave the organization only after a short period of time.
8. Meet the organizations legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its workforce.
9. Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates.
10. Increase organization and individual effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants

RECRUITMENT PROCESS

The recruitment and selection is the major function of the human resource department and recruitment process is the first step towards creating the competitive strength and the strategic advantage for the organizations. Recruitment process involves a systematic procedure from sourcing the candidates to arranging and conducting the interviews and requires many resources and time.

A general recruitment process is as follows:

1. Identifying the vacancy:

The recruitment process begins with the human resource department receiving requisitions for recruitment from any department of the company. These contain:

• Posts to be filled
• Number of persons
• Duties to be performed
• Qualifications required

2. Preparing the job description and person specification.
3. Locating and developing the sources of required number and type of employees (Advertising etc).
4. Short-listing and identifying the prospective employee with required characteristics.
5. Arranging the interviews with the selected candidates.
6. Conducting the interview and decision making

The recruitment process is immediately followed by the selection process i.e. the final interviews and the decision making, conveying the decision and the appointment formalities.

SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT

Every organization has the option of choosing the candidates for its recruitment processes from two kinds of sources: internal and external sources. The sources within the organization itself (like transfer of employees from one department to other, promotions) to fill a position are known as the internal sources of recruitment. Recruitment candidates from all the other sources (like outsourcing agencies etc.) are known as the external sources of recruitment.

SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT

INTERNAL SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT

1. TRANSFERS
   The employees are transferred from one department to another according to their efficiency and experience.
2. PROMOTIONS
   The employees are promoted from one department to another with more benefits and greater responsibility based on efficiency and experience.
3. Others are Upgrading and Demotion of present employees according to their performance.
4. Retired and Retrenched employees may also be recruited once again in case of shortage of qualified personnel or increase in load of work. Recruitment such people save time and costs of the organizations as the people are already aware of the organizational culture and the policies and procedures.
5. The dependents and relatives of Deceased employees and Disabled employees are also done by many companies so that the members of the family do not become dependent on the mercy of others.

Advantages: -

1. Motivated employees and Higher morale
2. Employees familiar with the organization
3. Higher probability of success
4. Industrial Peace
5. Relatively inexpensive
6. Training and skill enhancement
7. Overcoming surpluses and shortages

Disadvantages: -

1.      Reduced scope for fresh talent.

2.      Employees may become lethargic if they are sure of time bound promotions

3.      Spirit of competition may be hampered

4.      Frequent transfers of employees may reduce the overall productivity of the organization.

5.      Political infighting for promotion

EXTERNAL SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT

1. PRESS ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements of the vacancy in newspapers and journals are a widely used source of recruitment. The main advantage of this method is that it has a wide reach.
2. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES: Various management institutes, engineering colleges, medical Colleges etc. are a good source of recruiting well qualified executives, engineers, medical staff etc. They provide facilities for campus interviews and placements. This source is known as Campus Recruitment.
3. PLACEMENT AGENCIES: Several private consultancy firms perform recruitment functions on behalf of client companies by charging a fee. These agencies are particularly suitable for recruitment of executives and specialists. It is also known as RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing)
4. EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES: Government establishes public employment exchanges throughout the country. These exchanges provide job information to job seekers and help employers in identifying suitable candidates.
5. LABOUR CONTRACTORS: Manual workers can be recruited through contractors who maintain close contacts with the sources of such workers. This source is used to recruit labor for construction jobs.
6. UNSOLICITED APPLICANTS: Many job seekers visit the office of well-known companies on their own. Such callers are considered nuisance to the daily work routine of the enterprise. But can help in creating the talent pool or the database of the probable candidates for the organization.
7. EMPLOYEE REFERRALS / RECOMMENDATIONS: Many organizations have structured system where the current employees of the organization can refer their friends and relatives for some position in their organization. Also, the office bearers of trade unions are often aware of the suitability of candidates. Management can inquire these leaders for suitable jobs. In some organizations these are formal agreements to give priority in recruitment to the candidates recommended by the trade union.
8. RECRUITMENT AT FACTORY GATE: Unskilled workers may be recruited at the factory gate these may be employed whenever a permanent worker is absent. More efficient among these may be recruited to fill permanent vacancies.

Advantages: -

1. Qualified Personnel
2. Wider Choice
3. Fresh Talent
4. Competitive Spirit

Disadvantages: -

1. Dissatisfaction amongst existing staff
2. Lengthy process (Increased adjustment period)
3. Costly Process
4. Uncertain Process

FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT

The recruitment function of the organizations is affected and governed by a mix of various internal and external forces. The internal forces or factors are the factors that can be controlled by the organization. And the external factors are those factors which cannot be controlled by the organization.

THE INTERNAL FORCES I.E. THE FACTORS WHICH CAN BE CONTROLLED BY THE ORGANIZATION ARE: -

1. RECRUITMENT POLICY
The recruitment policy of an organization specifies the objectives of recruitment and provides a framework for implementation of recruitment programme. It may involve organizational system to be developed for implementing recruitment programmes and procedures by filling up vacancies with best qualified people.

FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT POLICY
• Organizational objectives
• Personnel policies of the organization and its competitors.

• Government policies on reservations.
• Preferred sources of recruitment.
• Need of the organization.
• Recruitment costs and financial implications.

2. HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
Effective human resource planning helps in determining the gaps present in the existing manpower of the organization. It also helps in determining the number of employees to be recruited and what qualification they must possess.

3. SIZE OF THE FIRM
The size of the firm is an important factor in recruitment process. If the organization is planning to increase its operations and expand its business, it will think of hiring more personnel, which will handle its operations.

4. COST
Recruitment incur cost to the employer, therefore, organizations try to employ that source of recruitment which will bear a lower cost of recruitment to the organization for each candidate.

5. GROWTH AND EXPANSION
Organization will employ or think of employing more personnel if it is expanding it’s operations.

THE EXTERNAL FORCES ARE THE FORCES WHICH CANNOT BE CONTROLLED BY THE ORGANIZATION. THE MAJOR EXTERNAL FORCES ARE:

1. SUPPLY AND DEMAND
The availability of manpower both within and outside the organization is an important determinant in the recruitment process. If the company has a demand for more professionals and there is limited supply in the market for the professionals demanded by the company, then the company will have to depend upon internal sources by providing them special training and development programs.

2. LABOUR MARKET
Employment conditions in the community where the organization is located will influence the recruiting efforts of the organization. If there is surplus of manpower at the time of recruitment, even informal attempts at the time of recruiting like notice boards display of the requisition or announcement in the meeting etc will attract more than enough applicants.

3. IMAGE / GOODWILL
Image of the employer can work as a potential constraint for recruitment. An organization with positive image and goodwill as an employer finds it easier to attract and retain employees than an organization with negative image. Image of a company is based on what organization does and affected by industry. For example finance was taken up by fresher MBA’s when many finance companies were coming up.

4. POLITICAL-SOCIAL- LEGAL ENVIRONMENT
Various government regulations prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment have direct impact on recruitment practices. For example, Government of India has introduced legislation for reservation in employment for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, physically handicapped etc. Also, trade unions play important role in recruitment. This restricts management freedom to select those individuals who it believes would be the best performers. If the candidate can’t meet criteria stipulated by the union but union regulations can restrict recruitment sources.

5. UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
One of the factors that influence the availability of applicants is the growth of the economy (whether economy is growing or not and its rate). When the company is not creating new jobs, there is often oversupply of qualified labor which in turn leads to unemployment.

6. COMPETITORS
The recruitment policies of the competitors also affect the recruitment function of the organizations. To face the competition, many a times the organizations have to change their recruitment policies according to the policies being followed by the competitors.

HEAD HUNTING

Headhunting refers to the approach of finding and attracting the best experienced person with the required skill set. Headhunting involves convincing the person to join your organization.

RECRUITMENT POLICY OF A COMPANY

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, a well defined recruitment policy is necessary for organizations to respond to its human resource requirements in time. Therefore, it is important to have a clear and concise recruitment policy in place, which can be executed effectively to recruit the best talent pool for the selection of the right candidate at the right place quickly. Creating a suitable recruitment policy is the first step in the efficient hiring process. A clear and concise recruitment policy helps ensure a sound recruitment process.

It specifies the objectives of recruitment and provides a framework for implementation of recruitment programme. It may involve organizational system to be developed for implementing recruitment programmes and procedures by filling up vacancies with best qualified people.

Components of the Recruitment Policy

• The general recruitment policies and terms of the organization
• Recruitment services of consultants
• Recruitment of temporary employees
• Unique recruitment situations
• The selection process
• The job descriptions
• The terms and conditions of the employment

A recruitment policy of an organization should be such that:

• It should focus on recruiting the best potential people.
• To ensure that every applicant and employee is treated equally with dignity and respect.
• Unbiased policy.
• To aid and encourage employees in realizing their full potential.
• Transparent, task oriented and merit based selection.
• Weightage during selection given to factors that suit organization needs.
• Optimization of manpower at the time of selection process.
• Defining the competent authority to approve each selection.
• Abides by relevant public policy and legislation on hiring and employment relationship.
• Integrates employee needs with the organizational needs.

Factors Affecting Recruitment Policy

• Organizational objectives
• Personnel policies of the organization and its competitors.
• Government policies on reservations.
• Preferred sources of recruitment.
• Need of the organization.
• Recruitment costs and financial implications.

How to Select a Recruitment Consultant

If an organization decides to outsource its recruitment processes or activities, it is very important to find and select a suitable recruitment consultant or consultancies, which can deliver results according to the needs of the organization. Today, there are thousands of consulting firms (consultancies) as well as freelance consultants working independently. An organization looks for various considerations and qualities before selecting the suitable recruitment consultant.

§  The reputation of the consulting firm in the job market (based on expertise and experience).

§  Who are the consultant’s or firm’s past and present clients?

§  Consultant’s expertise and experience (from how long has he/firm been in the business)

§  Does the recruitment consultant have the requisite resources to complete the targets on time?

§  Get the idea of the effectiveness and the services of the recruitment consultant from its current and past clients.

Qualities of an independent recruitment consultant:

§  Marketing skills

§  Flexibility and adaptability

§  Wisdom

§  Exuberance

§  Ability to priorities

§  Ambition

§  Resourcefulness

§  Diplomacy/ delicacy

Selecting the right recruitment consultant is essential for the effective recruitment processes. A successful Recruitment consultant is someone who is determinative, focused, and able to create opportunities for him, works harder and smarter than competitors and continually set and achieve higher standards. 

Advantages of outsourcing are:

Outsourcing is beneficial for both the corporate organizations that use the outsourcing services as well as the consultancies that provide the service to the corporate. Apart from increasing their revenues, outsourcing provides business opportunities to the service providers, enhancing the skill set of the service providers and exposure to the different corporate experiences thereby increasing their expertise.
The advantages accruing to the corporate are:

§  turning the management's focus to strategic level processes of HRM

§  accessibility to the expertise of the service providers

§  freedom from red tape and adhering to strict rules and regulations

§  optimal resource utilization

§  structured and fair performance management.

§  a satisfied and, hence, highly productive employees

§  value creation, operational flexibility and competitive advantage

2.      POACHING/RAIDING
“Buying talent” (rather than developing it) is the latest mantra being followed by the organizations today. Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company in the same or different industry; the organization might be a competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe brunt of poaching today. It has become a challenge for human resource managers to face and tackle poaching, as it weakens the competitive strength of the firm.

3.      E-RECRUITMENT
Many big organizations use Internet as a source of recruitment. E- recruitment is the use of technology to assist the recruitment process. They advertise job vacancies through worldwide web. The job seekers send their applications or curriculum vitae i.e. CV through e mail using the Internet. Alternatively job seekers place their CV’s in worldwide web, which can be drawn by prospective employees depending upon their requirements.
The two kinds of e- recruitment that an organization can use is –

§  Job portals – i.e. posting the position with the job description and the job specification on the job portal and also searching for the suitable resumes posted on the site corresponding to the opening in the organization.

§  Creating a complete online recruitment/application section in the companies own website. - Companies have added an application system to its website, where the ‘passive’ job seekers can submit their resumes into the database of the organization for consideration in future, as and when the roles become available.

Resume Scanners: Resume scanner is one major benefit provided by the job portals to the organizations. It enables the employees to screen and filter the resumes through pre-defined criteria’s and requirements (skills, qualifications, experience, payroll etc.) of the job.

Job sites provide a 24*7 access to the database of the resumes to the employees facilitating the just-in-time hiring by the organizations. Also, the jobs can be posted on the site almost immediately and is also cheaper than advertising in the employment newspapers. Sometimes companies can get valuable references through the “passers-by” applicants. Online recruitment helps the organizations to automate the recruitment process, save their time and costs on recruitments.

Online recruitment techniques

§  Giving a detailed job description and job specifications in the job postings to attract candidates with the right skill sets and qualifications at the first stage.

§  E-recruitment should be incorporated into the overall recruitment strategy of the organization.

§  A well defined and structured applicant tracking system should be integrated and the system should have a back-end support.

§  Along with the back-office support a comprehensive website to receive and process job applications (through direct or online advertising) should be developed.

§  Therefore, to conclude, it can be said that e-recruitment is the “Evolving face of recruitment.”

Advantages of recruitment are:

§  Low cost.

§  No intermediaries

§  Reduction in time for recruitment.

§  Recruitment of right type of people.

§  Efficiency of recruitment process.

FORMS OF RECRUITMENT

The organizations differ in terms of their size, business, processes and practices. A few decisions by the recruitment professionals can affect the productivity and efficiency of the organization. Organizations adopt different forms of recruitment practices according to the specific needs of the organization. The organizations can choose from the centralized or decentralized forms of recruitment, explained below:

Centralized Recruitment

The recruitment practices of an organization are centralized when the HR / recruitment department at the head office performs all functions of recruitment. Recruitment decisions for all the business verticals and departments of an organization are carried out by the one central HR (or recruitment) department. Centralized from of recruitment is commonly seen in government organizations.

Benefits of the centralized form of recruitment are:

§  Reduces administration costs

§  Better utilization of specialists

§  Uniformity in recruitment

§  Interchangeability of staff

§  Reduces favoritism

§  Every department sends requisitions for recruitment to their central office

Decentralized Recruitment

Decentralized recruitment practices are most commonly seen in the case of conglomerates operating in different and diverse business areas. With diverse and geographically spread business areas and offices, it becomes important to understand the needs of each department and frame the recruitment policies and procedures accordingly. Each department carries out its own recruitment. Choice between the two will depend upon management philosophy and needs of particular organization. In some cases combination of both is used. Lower level staffs as well as top level executives are recruited in a decentralized manner.

RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES

Recruitment is of the most crucial roles of the human resource professionals. The level of performance of and organization depends on the effectiveness of its recruitment function. Organizations have developed and follow recruitment strategies to hire the best talent for their organization and to utilize their resources optimally. A successful recruitment strategy should be well planned and practical to attract more and good talent to apply in the organization.

For formulating an effective and successful recruitment strategy, the strategy should cover the following elements:

1. Identifying and prioritizing jobs

Requirements keep arising at various levels in every organization; it is almost a never-ending process. It is impossible to fill all the positions immediately. Therefore, there is a need to identify the positions requiring immediate attention and action. To maintain the quality of the recruitment activities, it is useful to prioritize the vacancies whether to focus on all vacancies equally or focusing on key jobs first.

2. Candidates to target
   The recruitment process can be effective only if the organization completely understands the requirements of the type of candidates that are required and will be beneficial for the organization. This covers the following parameters as well:
• Performance level required: Different strategies are required for focusing on hiring high performers and average performers.
• Experience level required: the strategy should be clear as to what is the experience level required by the organization. The candidate’s experience can range from being a fresher to experienced senior professionals.
• Category of the candidate: the strategy should clearly define the target candidate. He/she can be from the same industry, different industry, unemployed, top performers of the industry etc.
3. Sources of recruitment
   The strategy should define various sources (external and internal) of recruitment. Trained recruiters
   The recruitment professionals conducting the interviews and the other recruitment activities should be well-trained and experienced to conduct the activities. They should also be aware of the major parameters and skills (e.g.: behavioral, technical etc.) to focus while interviewing and selecting a candidate.
4. How to evaluate the candidates
   The various parameters and the ways to judge them i.e. the entire recruitment process should be planned in advance. Like the rounds of technical interviews, HR interviews, written tests, psychometric tests etc.

RECRUITMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Recruitment management system is the comprehensive tool to manage the entire recruitment processes of an organization. It is one of the technological tools facilitated by the information management systems to the HR of organizations. Just like performance management, payroll and other systems, Recruitment management system helps to contour the recruitment processes and effectively managing the ROI on recruitment.

The features, functions and major benefits of the recruitment management system are explained below:

• Structure and systematically organize the entire recruitment processes.
• Recruitment management system facilitates faster, unbiased, accurate and reliable processing of applications from various applications.
• Helps to reduce the time-per-hire and cost-per-hire.
• Recruitment management system helps to incorporate and integrate the various links like the application system on the official website of the company, the unsolicited applications, outsourcing recruitment, the final decision making to the main recruitment process.
• Recruitment management system maintains an automated active database of the applicants facilitating the talent management and increasing the efficiency of the recruitment processes.
• Recruitment management system provides and a flexible, automated and interactive interface between the online application system, the recruitment department of the company and the job seeker.
• Offers tolls and support to enhance productivity, solutions and optimizing the recruitment processes to ensure improved ROI.
• Recruitment management system helps to communicate and create healthy relationships with the candidates through the entire recruitment process.

The Recruitment Management System (RMS) is an innovative information system tool which helps to sane the time and costs of the recruiters and improving the recruitment processes.

Related articles

• The passive candidate: Attraction is the name of the game