RECRUITMENT
Recruitment is a process to discover the sources of manpower to meet the requirement of the staffing schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of efficient personnel.
Recruiting is an ongoing project for any organization. From the moment an employment application is submitted, recruitment software should be there to rank it, match the applicant to job if necessary and place the information in a database that can share the information across different software applications or applicant tracking tasks, including scheduling interviews and sending out letters for every stage of the recruitment process.
Definitions:
It is the process of finding and attracting capable applicants of employment. The process begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applications are submitted. The result is pool of applicant from which new employees are selected.
– K. ASWATHAPPA.
Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for the jobs in the organization.
– EDWIN. B. FLIPPO
Significance:
The general purpose of recruitment is to provide a pool of potentially qualified job candidates. Specifically, the purpose is to:
1) Determine the present and future requirements of the organization in conjunction with its personal planning and job-analysis activities.
2) Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost.
3) Help to increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the number of visibly under qualified or over qualified job applicants.
4) Help to reduce the probability that job applicants, once recruited and selected, will leave the organization only after a short period of time.
5) Meet the organization’s legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its workforce.
6) Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates.
7) Increase organizational and individual effectiveness in the short term and long term.
8) Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants.
Objectives of recruitment:
- To attract people with multi dimensional skills and experiences that suits the present and future organizational strategies.
- To induct the outsiders with a new perspective to lead the company
- To infuse fresh blood at all levels of the organization.
- To develop an organizational culture that attracts competent people to the company.
- To devise methodologies for assessing psychological traits.
- To seek out non-conventional grounds of talent.
- To design entry pay that competes on quality but not on quantum.
- To anticipate and find people for positions that does not exist.
Recruitment policy:
The recruitment policy of any organization is derived from the personnel policy of the same organization. It includes:
- Government policies
- Personnel policies of other competing organizations
- Organization’s personnel policies
- Recruitment sources
- Recruitment needs
- Recruitment cost
- Selection criteria and preference etc
Sources of recruitment:
The sources of recruitment are broadly divided into internal and external sources.
Internal Sources:
- Present permanent employees
- Present temporary or casual employees
- Retrenched or retired employees
- Dependents of deceased, disabled, present and retired employees.
Why do organizations prefer internal sources?
- It can be used as a technique for motivation.
- Morale of the employees can be improved.
- Suitability of the internal candidates can be judged better than the external candidates as “known devils are better than unknown angels”.
- Cost of selection can be minimized.
- Trade unions can be satisfied.
- Stability of the employees can be ensured.
External Sources:
a) Campus recruitment:
Different types of organizations like industries, business firms, service organizations ,social organizations can get inexperienced candidates of different types from various educational institutions like colleges and universities. Many companies realize that campus recruitment is one of the best techniques for recruiting new blood. These include
- Short listing the institutes based on the quality of the students intake, faculty facilities and past track record.
- Offering the smart pay rather than high pay package.
- Presenting a clear image of the company and the corporate culture.
- Getting in early. Make an early bird offer.
- Include young line managers and business school and engineering school alumni in the recruiting team.
b) Private employee agencies:
Consultants in India perform the recruitment functions on behalf of a client company by charging fee. Line managers are relieved from recruitment functions so that they can concentrate on operational activities. Hence these agencies work effectively in the recruitment of executives.
c) Public employee exchanges:
The government set up public employment exchanges in the country to provide information about vacancies to the candidates and to help the organization in finding out suitable candidates.
d) Professional Organizations:
These organizations maintain complete bio-data of their members and provide the same to various organizations on requisition. They also act as an exchange between their members and recruiting firms in exchanging information, clarifying doubts etc.
e) Data banks:
The management can collect the bio-data of the candidates from different sources like employee exchange, educational training institutes, candidates etc and feed them in the computer. it will become another source and the company can get the particulars as and when it needs to recruit.
f) Casual applicants:
Depending upon the image of the organization, its prompt response, participation of the organization in the local activities, level of unemployment. Candidates apply casually for jobs through mail or handover the applications in the personnel department.
g) Similar organizations:
Generally experienced candidates are available in organizations producing similar products or are engaged in similar business. The management can get most suitable candidates from this source.
h) Trade unions:
Generally unemployed or underemployed persons or employees seeking change in employment put a word to the trade union leaders with a view to getting suitable employment due to latter’s intimacy with management. In view of this fact and in order to satisfy the trade union leaders, management enquires trade unions for suitable candidates.
Reasons for external sources:
- Candidates can be selected without any pre-conceived notion or reservations.
- HR mix can be balanced with different background, experience and skill etc.
- Latest knowledge skill, innovative or creative talent can also be flowed in to the organization.
- Long run benefit to the organization in the sense that qualitative human resources can be brought.
Recruitment Techniques:
These are the techniques by which the management contracts prospective employees or provides necessary information or exchanges ideas or stimulates them to apply for jobs. Management uses different types of techniques to stimulate internal and external candidates. Techniques useful to stimulate internal candidates are:
- Promotions
- Transfers
Techniques useful to stimulate external candidates:
- Present employees
Advertising:
Techniques of advertising aim at:
a) Attracting attention of the prospective candidates
b) Creating and maintaining interest
c) Stimulating action by the candidates
Modern sources and techniques of recruitment:
A number of modern recruitment sources and techniques are being used by the corporate sector in addition to traditional sources and techniques. These techniques include.
a) Walk-in:
The busy organizations and the rapid changing companies do not find time to perform various functions of recruitment. Therefore, they advise the potential candidates to attend for an interview directly and without a prior application on a specified date, time and at a specified place.
b) Consult-in:
The busy and dynamic companies encourage the potential job seekers to approach them personally and consult them regarding the jobs; the companies select the suitable candidates from among such candidates through the selection process.
c) Head Hunting (search consultants):
In this the professional organizations search for the most suitable candidates and advise the company regarding the filling up of the positions.
d) Body Shopping:
The prospective employees contact these organizations to recruit the candidates. These professional and training institutions are called body shoppers and these activities are known as body shopping.
e) Business Alliances:
Business alliances like acquisition, mergers and takeovers help in getting human resources. In addition, the companies do also have alliances in sharing their human resources on ad-hoc basis.
f) Tele-recruitment:
Organizations advertise the job vacancies through the World Wide Web (internet). The job seekers send their applications through e-mail or internet.