Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment and Selection practices have become increasingly important in the process of managing human resources. Recognition of the fact that a good employee makes an organization work effectively & efficiently and a poor one restrict an organization’s success has led to an emphasis on attracting and selecting people with the right personal characteristic and attitudes, rather than with merely particular work experience and acquired skills.

Recruitment

Recruitment is the process of finding and hiring suitable candidates ( from within internal or external of an organization ) to fill the positions. The process involves searching, sourcing, and selecting the right candidates for the roles of the organization.

“Recruitment is the process of attracting a pool of candidates for a vacant position”- Mckenna & Beech, 1997

“Recruiting is that set of activities an organisation uses to attract job candidates who have the abilities and attitudes needed to help the organisation achieved its objectives.” – Ivancevich and Glueck, 1989

At the organisational level, HR planning and job analysis are the basics of recruitment management.

Developing Recruitment Policies

Recruitment policy is a part of the organization’s strategy for two reasons;

• It seeks to provide the organisation with people who have the talents needed to achieve strategic goals. and
• it has an impact on long-range employment stability and turnover.

The development of an effective policy of recruitment largely is influenced by the interactions of national culture variables, business strategy and HRM strategy.

The number of factors to be considered in developing recruitment policy depends on:

1. Country specific rules and regulation
2. Pattern of ownership
3. Corporate Policies
4. Managerial Role
5. Union Representation
6. Communication and consultation with employee

Different sources of recruitment

The different sources of Recruitment are classified into two categories.

1. Internal Sources
2. External Sources

Internal Sources:

This involves recruiting candidates within an organization to fill the vacancy. Unlike external sources, companies fill the positions through references of internal employees or current employees’ promotions to higher positions. Some companies might have the policy of recruiting employees from within. It is an important source of recruitment.

1. Promotions
2. Transfer
3. Job Rotation
4. Rehire and Recall

Methods of Internal Recruitment

1. Internal Advertisements ( emails, newsletters, forms )
2. Word of Mouth
3. Promotions
4. Internal Employee Referrals
5. Retired Employees for temporary or contract positions.
6. Present temporary/contract employees to permanent positions
7. Former employees for part-time/freelancer/work at home.

Advantages of Internal Recruitment

1. No need for training
2. Builds strong relationships with employees.
3. Motivates others of hard work to get high positions.
4. Easy to pick the best talents within an organization very quickly
5. Long stay with the company when promoted to high position. Advantages of Internal Recruitment
6. Internal employees are more familiar with the organisation’s people, policies, practices and procedures
7. Employees can be motivated to increase their performance by offering them an opportunity for internal promotion.
8. It minimises cost rather than recruiting from an outside organization.

Disadvantages of Internal Recruitment

1. The positions of the persons who are promoted will be vacant.
2. There may be partiality in promoting employees.3. No new opportunities for external candidates.
3. Dissatisfied employees may quit if their co-worker is promoted to high positions.

External Sources

This involves recruiting a candidate through references, networks, job portals or they may approach recruitment agencies. In order to compete with other companies &increase their standard, employers hunt for the best talents working for other top companies.

1. Job Portals
2. Internal and External Employee Referrals
3. Recruitment/Headhunting agencies
4. 4. Job ads on Newspapers/Websites
5. Campus Recruitment
6. Walk-In
7. Trade Unions and associations

Advantages of External Recruitment

1. Create new opportunities for external employees.
2. Best candidates can be placed for the roles3. Cost of employees can be minimized4. Increase in the selection ratio.
3. There are fewer chances of partiality
4. Uniqueness in employees worked for different companies can take the current company to extra mile
5. Able to recruit the skills it needs.

Disadvantages of External Recruitment

1. The cost to hire is high.
2. The external process is more time-consuming as compared to the internal process.
3. Sourcing quality candidates becomes difficult for the companies.
4. Internal recruiters lack headhunting skills (Fewer references & networks ). They may have to approach Recruitment agencies to hire the people.

Recruitment Process:

1. Integration of Corporate Planning and HR Planning
2. Job design and Job analysis
3. Legal Consideration
4. Locating Sources and Methods
5. Developing a pool of Qualified Candidates

Recruitment Planning:

• Understanding of Recruitment Process
• Assigning Responsibility for Recruitment
• Implementation of Recruitment Policies

Internal Recruitment vs. External Recruitment

With a lot of competitors and rapid changes in technology, companies look for candidates working in similar domains of different skills and uniqueness to build their business. Employees within a company lack modern technology process that cannot compete with other companies, which can bring the company to a low level. Unlike Internalemployees, external passive candidates can bring a lot of changes to the companies with innovative ideas and creative skills to improve business-standard. As technology moves to an advanced level, customers begin to use the latest technologies. In order to compete with other companies, external employees with the latest skills and thorough knowledge of business economy and competitive place are responsible for better business growth.

When internal employees fail to do so, employers go searching for external candidates with rich sources of the latest skills to fill the positions. These external candidates are not so easily available on job boards. They are happy working in their current organization and do not look for a career change. Contacting these successful candidates requires great sensitivity to convince them to take up the new opportunities. These hidden talents can be found only through references and a wide network. When internal recruiters of the organization fail to recruit such candidates, they go for headhunting agencies. Thus, to hire quality candidates external recruitment becomes necessary for companies.

Though external recruitment is costly, it is far better than internal recruitment. Various recruitment and headhunting agencies are modernized to hunt candidates through various techniques. They research the marketplace; know the competitors and source the best talents for the positions.

Selection Process

Selection is the process of gathering information about job applicants in order to determine who should be hired and who should be rejected.

“Selection is the process of gathering information for the purposes of evaluating and deciding who should be hired, under legal guidelines, for the short and long-term interests of the individual and the organisations”. – Schmitt and Schneider

Selection is the process concerned with the evaluation of candidates, and the development of systems, procedures and methods to ensure that high-quality personnel is brought into organisations.

1. Application forms or letter of application
2. The selection interview
3. Selection Test
4. Reference Checks
5. Physical Examinations
6. Final Selection Decision

Limitations of Interview

1. Snap judgment by the interviewer
2. Negative emphasis
3. Not knowing job
4. Pressure to hire
5. Candidate-order error

Orientation

Socialisation

Socialisation of New Employee

1. Organisation culture
2. Roles
3. Values
4. Norms

Purpose of Socialisation:

1. To ensure predictability of employee behavior
2. To substitute for rules guiding employee behavior
3. To increase employee performance and satisfaction
4. To reduce anxiety

Process of Socialisation:

1. Pre-arrival stage (entry)
2. Encounter stage
3. Metamorphosis

The socialisation process affects the performance, career and turnover of the individual.

Consideration in Developing: A Socialisation Programme

While socialising the new recruits the following considerations are necessary for HR Managers:

1. Formality or Informality
2. Determined or Undetermined
3. Individually tailored or collectively administered
4. Sequential or non-sequential
5. Homogeneous or Heterogeneous
6. Serial or Disjunctive
7. Investiture or Divestiture