Recruitment

1. What are the objectives of Recruitment?

The following are the objectives of recruitment.

a) Enlarge the adequate pool of talented candidates at the minimum cost.

b) Identify the present and future needs of the organization in alignment
with HRP and job analysis.
c) Facilitate the success of the selection process by decreasing the
chances of hiring under qualified or overqualified candidates.
d) Enable the organization to meet its legal and social obligations.
e) Enhance the short-term as well as the long-term effectiveness of the
organization and individual
f) Assess the efficiency of different recruitment methods
g) Identify the potential job applicants who would be appropriate for the
organization.

2. What are the internal and external factors that influence the recruitment function of an
organization?

Internal Factors:

Refer to the factors that are related to the organization’s internal functions and
activities. Internal factors are comparatively more controllable than external ones. The
internal factors include:
a) Policies
b) Organizational image
c) Organizational size
d) Job attractiveness
e) Recruitment cost
f) Employee personal preferences

External Factors:

Refer to the factors that are related to the macro environment. The prevailing market
conditions are example of macro environment.

a) Labour market conditions

b) Unemployment situations
c) Government regulations & legal considerations
 3. Explain the process of recruitment.

Recruitment consists of the following five interrelated steps.

i. Recruitment Planning
ii. Strategy Development
iii. Searching
iv. Screening
v. Evaluation and Control

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Recruitment Planning:

Recruitment planning is the first step of the recruitment process. It involves identifying
vacancies, preparing job descriptions, and job specifications. This helps in knowing the
number and type of the applicants to be contacted. Recruitment planning also involves the
decisions regarding the right quantity of human resource. The quantity of human resource is
determined from the HR plans (difference between demand and supply of human resource)
and quality is estimated by the qualifications and skills expected from an employee to
perform the job efficiently. Recruitment planning involves two sub-steps, determining the
number and the type of applicants to be invited. These two sub steps of recruitment planning
are explained as follows.
  Number of Contacts: Refers to the number of applicants to be contacted for
recruitment. Organizations usually invite more applicants than they actually require or
hire because some of the contacted persons would be either uninterested, unqualified
or both. Organizations usually deal with this problem by estimating the number of
applicants necessary to fill all the vacant job positions. The number of people to be
contacted is estimated by calculating the Yield Ratios (yR). These ratios indicate the
number of contacts required to create a specific number of hires at a point of time.

 Type of Contacts: Refers to the kind of people to be invited for the vacancies. The
basic criteria for consideration in this step are the requisite skills, educational
qualification, professional qualification, experience, and competency as required by
the job. This information can be obtained by preparing job description and job
specification.

Strategy Development

Strategy development constitutes the second step of the recruitment process. After
determining the quality and quantity of workforce, the organization requires to give due
consideration to various strategic decisions, such as methods/techniques of recruitment;
where to look; and what would be the sources of recruitment (internal or external). This will
help in developing suitable strategies and plans that will suit the entire process of recruitment.
Recruitment strategies should be designed in such a manner that they attract maximum
candidates. These strategies should consider the following points:

 Make or Buy Decisions: Deciding whether the organization makes the

employees or buys the employees. The make strategy means hiring less skilled
employees and then training and developing them; whereas the buy strategy
refers to hiring skilled employees. The make decision usually involves less
investment as compared to the buy strategy.

 Techniques of Recruitment: Deciding the method or technique to be used in

recruitment. Initially, recruitment is done through traditional methods, such as
newspaper advertisement, recruitment at the factory gates, and through word
of mouth The selection of recruitment method is greatly influenced by the
available technology. With the advent of computers, recruitment has become
an easy activity for the employers. Computers have made it possible for
employers to scan national and international applicants with less investment.

 Where to Look: Deciding the location of the labor market where an

organization is most likely to get the required job seekers. The location
selected by an organization mainly depends on the type of employees needed
and the budget allocated for the recruitment. For instance, organizations
usually explore the national market for managers or executives, regional or
 local markets for the technical employees, and local markets for blue-collar
employees.

 How to Look: Identifying the sources of recruitment, which could be internal

or external. The internal sources comprise present employees, employee
references, ex-employees, and former applicants. On the other hand, the
external sources include the sources that are external to the organization, such
as advertisements, employment exchange, professional or trade associations,
walk-ins, consultants, campus recruitment, management consultants, casual
callers, and recruitment at the factory gates.

 Where to Look: Deciding on the timings of various recruitment events. The

timing for recruitment is chiefly determined by using the Time Lapsed Data.
This gives the average time that lapse between major decision events in the
recruitment process. In simple words, TLD represents the time lag between the
date of employee requisition by a department and the actual date of filling the
job positions in that department.

Searching

Searching for the required job seeker begins after the development of the recruitment plan
and strategy. Searching of the potential candidates involves two main activities namely,
activation of source and selling, which are explained as follows:

 Activation of Source: Starts with the issuance of an employee requisition form

by a specific department. In practice, no actual recruitment process begins
until a line manager verifies that a vacancy exists.

 Selling: Communicates the organization’s message to the potential employees.

This communication mainly addresses two issues, one being the message and
the other being the media selected for advertising the message. The message
represents employment advertisement, including the details of the job
vacancy. The information of recruitment is advertised through various media,
such as an employment exchange, consultants, advertisement in business
magazines, and campus recruitments. The organization can use any of the
available media depending upon its urgency and type of candidate required.

Screening

Screening denotes the initial investigation and assessment of the applications received from
the applicants. The main objective of screening is the elimination of the applicants who are
visibly unsuitable for the specific job at an early stage of the recruitment process. It saves
time, money, and efforts of the organization in the long run. The selection of screening
techniques depends upon the source of the candidate and the recruitment method used.
Evaluation and Control

The evaluation and control processes determine the effectiveness of the overall recruitment
process. Evaluation of the recruitment process is intended to assess the success of recruitment
depending upon various factors, such as carrying out recruitment procedure as per plans,
ascertaining the rate of success in generating enough response from the candidates, and
incurring reasonable cost for the recruitment process. The control process aims at ensuring
the validity and reliability of recruitment methods so used.