Recruitment and Human Resources Management

Recruitment According to Edwin B. Flippo, “recruitment is the process of searching the candidates for employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation”. Recruitment is the activity that links the employers and the job seekers. In other words, it is a process of finding and attracting capable applicants for employment. The process 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. Flippo Edwin B. (1984) Recruitment Procedure

In today’s scenario, the recruitment procedure varies depending upon the nature of the requirement. These procedures require the placement of the right talent at the right place, thereby making the association mutually beneficial for the employer and the employee. There are usually two types of recruitment processes. Recruitment Processes: External and Internal Internal recruitment – The term internal recruitment is defined as the practice of choosing amongst current company workers to fill a position that falls vacant over time.

This may include a change in profile on the part of the employee. Internal recruitment is more economical and less time consuming for the company. External recruitment – In contrast, external recruitment has to do with external candidates applying for an available position. Once the staffing requirements are determined, an organization has to ensure that there are appropriate recruitment systems in place to attract and select candidates of the right caliber. This requires identifying and focusing on each of the critical stages of the recruitment process.

Naturally, the resources spent for the overall selection process are more. The Human Resources Department (HRD) team plays a significant role in the recruitment process steps of every organization. Whenever a vacancy arises in an organization, it is the responsibility of the HRD to place the information in the public domain through the various media, such as newspapers and various job sites. However, it is of utmost importance that the advertisement designed clearly defines the designation, job profile and the concomitant skill set required.

Filtration and Selection of Relevant Resumes As the organization will float the advertisement for the Vacancy, the jobseekers will start applying for the position. After receiving an adequate number of responses from job seekers, the scrutiny process of the resumes begins. This step play an essential role in the recruitment selection process, because selecting the correct resumes that match the job profile, is very critical. Generally, it is done by a competent person who understands all the responsibilities associated with the designation in its entirely.

Candidates with the given skill set are then chosen and further called for interview. Preliminary Selection Techniques Now a days, Online employment screening is a technique employed by certain employers. This technique saves a lot of time and money for the employer. It is an efficient method to assess the skills and knowledge of the candidate with regards to the required skill set. Assessment center technique is another method that includes lots of exercises on problem solving, presentation, aptitudes test and many more.

In this process, employers usually check the different skills of a person. After a candidate has cleared these tests, there is usually a formal round of interview with the HRD, where the discussion that includes salary expectations and subsequent negotiations takes place. Recruitment Interview Job interviews play an important role in the entire recruitment process. It is very important to put the candidate at ease, so as to eliminate initial nervousness and to break the ice. It is better to start with general questions to the candidate, so that he feels relaxed.

Queries should be job related, objective and understandable to the candidate. In this step only candidate demonstrates and assures the panel of his suitability for the post. The recruitment process of an organization ends by finalizing the candidate followed by other joining procedures and formalities. Suvamita Ghosh (2009/2010 Advantages and disadvantages of external and internal recruitment: Advantages of internal recruitment are more than just cutting on advertisement costs because it offers wonderful opportunities for the current staff to further their careers.

Internal recruitment could also be a great way of keeping workers who may have been considering a flight from the company, this is advantageous because the cost of training are at most best insignificant and to the worst much less than it would cost if the organization advertised outside. It’s definitely faster and less costly than outside recruitment and it has the added merits because current employees are a familiar entity. Some organizations conduct external recruitment only to discover later that they have a member of staff who doesn’t fit into the general environ and the mission and vision statement of the organization.

The disadvantage of internal recruitment is that the size of prospective applicants is considerably reduced. There is no doubt that outside recruitment provides the organization with a broader skill pool and wider experience than could be the case with internal recruitment. A staff member who responds to the internal advertised position and gets the job might discover that their workmates resent that promotion and that could prove very challenging for them in their newfound positions.

If a company does its recruitment internally, It most probably faces the possibility of having another empty position to fill, and of how to do that. Organizations that heavily rely on inside recruitment might eventually find that they have to advertise outside the organization, the cost notwithstanding. Current staff may fill to be the best candidates for the position regardless of whether they have the necessary expertise and expertise required for the job. Abhishek Agarwal (2008) External recruitment A PREFERENCE! Reasons To advantages. It helps you cquire competitive intelligence about other firms. New hires can help you identify other potential candidates to “poach” from their firm. The new ideas that applicants and new hires bring in stimulate the thinking of others. It keeps our employees on the edge because they know they must compete against outsiders for jobs. Outside hires don’t have political alliances already set up. This can help them implement new ideas without the “baggage” of past political battles. Some argue that hiring “already trained” people is cheaper than developing and promoting internal talent..

The outside recruiting and advertising for outside hires may tangentially help build your brand, send a message that you are growing and also help boost sales. In most cases external hiring adds more to the diversity of the workforce than internal hiring. If the firm is going global, it will undoubtedly line that external “local” hires are superior and performance to internal promotions. On the contrary, there are many disadvantages of external recruitment like, Outside hires can weaken the corporate culture by bringing in counter culture people. External hires often have a longer “adjustment period” and orientation costs are higher.

Customers may feel slighted if they don’t get one of the Firm’s current employees Firms with strategic alliances may anger their partners by “poaching” their talent. Hiring talent away from customers and suppliers may harm your business relationships. Legal issues can occur when hiring intact teams, top technical talent with non-compete agreements. In a competitive market you can’t hire quality talent without a strong recruiting function. Learning internet recruiting and setting up web pages may be prohibitively expensive or time consuming. Dr. John Sullivan (1999)

In order to illustrate the recruitment and selection process, we can take an example of hiring General Manager-Operations for an organization ventured into manufacturing of Electrical Products. The recruitment procedure starts from identifying Job requirements as soon as the recruitment need is finalized. HR Department will draft the job description, job requirements and proposed compensation; develop a budget and timeline for the search process; and then submit these proposals for approval by the full board. The budget should include advertising and candidate other hiring expenses.

Then the committee places ads, screens responses, checks references, develops interview questions, selects candidates to be interviewed, makes travel arrangements for out-of town candidates and conducts interviews. The next step is to shortlist the candidates in order to hire the best for the position vacant. Final round of interview can be arranged with the senior management along with the hiring recommendations. The final results should be notified immediately in order to complete the recruitment procedure with issuing Letter of Intent/Appointment Letter and other joining formalities.

Conclusion Recruitment is essential to effective Human Resources Management. It is the heart of the whole HR systems in the organization. The effectiveness of many other HR activities, such as selection and training depends largely on the quality of new employees attracted through the recruitment the recruitment process. Policies should always be reviewed as these are affected by the changing environment. Management should get specific training on the process of recruitment to increase their awareness on the dangers of wrong placements.

HR practitioners should be on the guard against all the malpractices and advocate for professional approach through out the system. The HR should indicate disagreement in the event that biasing toward certain candidates is creeping in and point out the repercussions that may follow in terms of performance and motivation. It is the author’s conviction that, the recruitment process should be seen in the context of ongoing staff planning that is linked to the strategic and financial planning of the organization.

Nyamupachari Vareta, Recruitment Process: The heart of Human Resources Management Referencing: Flippo E. B. (1984), Principles of Personnel Management (McGraw-Hill International Editions: Management Series) (Internet) Available at. Suvamita G. ,(2010), Recruitment Process Steps, (Internet) Available at . Abhishek A. , (2008), Business: Careers Employment (Internet) Available at . Dr. John S. (1999), The advantages and disadvantages of “External first’ Hiring Process, (Internet) Available at< http://www. ere. net/1999/09/17/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-external-first-hiring-preferences/>. Nyamupachari V. , RECRUITMENT PROCESS: THE ‘HEART’ OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT, (Internet), Avalable at: .