Recruitment - HRM

What is Recruitment?

Recruiting involves attracting, assessing, and selecting employees in HRM. It is a vital part of HRM that helps to create a high-performing workforce and supports the goals of the organization. However, HRM recruitment goes beyond filling vacant positions; it is about creating a strong pipeline of qualified candidates who can contribute to the growth and sustainability of the organization.

 

Factors Affecting Recruitment

We have Internal Factors as well as External Factors that influence the recruitment process.

 

INTERNAL FACTORS

 

1.     Recruitment Policy

The recruitment policy of the organization i.e. recruiting from internal sources and external also affect the recruitment process The recruitment policy of an organization specifies the objectives or recruitment and provides a framework for implementation of recruitment program.It may involve organizational system to be developed for implementing recruitment programs and procedure by filling up vacancies with best qualified people.

 

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 Organization

The size of the organization affects the 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 involved in recruitment

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 its operations.

 

EXTERNAL FACTORS

 

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.     Goodwill / Image of the organization

Image of the organization is another factor having its influence on the recruitment process of the organization. This 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. Managerial actions like good public relations, rendering public service like building roads, public parks, hospitals and schools help earn image or goodwill for organization.

 

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 labour 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.

 

Sources of Recruitment

Recruitment is performed to attract potential employees with the necessary qualifications and skills in the adequate number for the positions available in the organization. It searches available people for the job and invites them to apply for the job. The process of recruitment precedes the process of selection of the right candidate for the given positions in the organization. Recruitment seeks to attract suitable applicants to apply for available jobs.

 

An organization can recruit employees from within or from outside. Therefore, the various recruitment sources available to an organization may be broadly divided into two categories: Internal and External sources.

 

I. Internal Sources

Internal recruitment consists of two main resources that are transfers and promotions.

 

1.     Promotion: Promotion is referred to as the change of designation of the employee. It involves shifting of the existing employee to a higher position within the organisation and providing that employee with more responsibility and a raise in pay.

 

2.     Transfer: Transfer refers to the shifting of an existing employee from one department to another department in an organisation.

 

3.     Employee Referrals: It can happen that the organisation in an effort to cut down costs on hiring is looking for employee referral. The employees are well aware of the job roles in the organisation for which manpower is required. These employees will refer potential candidates by screening them based on their suitability to the position.

 

4.     Former employees: Some organisations have the provision of hiring retired employees willing to work part time/full time for the organisation.

 

II. External Sources

Since the filling up of all the vacancies in an organization is not possible through internal sources, there are several external forces for various positions. There might be a possibility that there are not sufficient men or that they do not fulfil the eligibility criteria for the job. The external sources of recruitment provide a vast range of choices and the introduction of fresh talents to the organization. The most used external sources are as follows:

 

1.     Direct Recruitment: Under the process of direct recruitment, a notice is placed outside on the notice board of the organization. The notice contains all the details of the job available. The people who are interested gather outside the premises of the organization on the specified date and time, and selection is done then and there. This method of direct recruitment is usually used for finding candidates for unskilled or semi-skilled jobs. Such people are paid wages daily and are referred to as casual workers or ‘badli’ workers. This type of recruitment is economical, as it does not require any form of advertising and thus, a lot of money is saved. It can be really helpful in situations when there is a rush of work or when the permanent workers are off-duty.

 

2.     Casual Callers: A lot of business organizations keep a record of uninvited job applicants in their offices. These candidates can be of benefit to the organization. Such a list of job-seekers can be evaluated, and used for filling up vacancies as required. This type of recruitment can decrease the price of recruiting the workforce.

 

3.     Advertisement: When a wide choice is required, advertisement is the frequently used method. Advertisements can be done through newspapers or trade or professional journals. A lot of senior positions in the industry as well as commerce are filled through advertisement. The benefit of advertisement is that a lot more detail about the organization and the job can be provided. It helps the management of the organization select from a larger range of candidates. Advertisements given in leading newspapers can bring in a lot of responses, but most of the time they are from candidates who are not quite suitable.

 

4.     Employment Exchange: Government-run employment exchanges are considered a good source of recruitment for both skilled as well as unskilled jobs. In a few cases, the organizations are necessarily required to notify the employment exchange of vacancies available. Therefore, employment exchange work as a link between the job-seekers and the employers by matching the personnel demand and supply. But a lot of times, the records of employment exchange are not quite suitable, as they might not meet up the expectations of the job.

 

5.     Placement agencies and Management consultants: Private agencies and professional bodies appear to be doing considerable work in technical and professional fields. Placement agencies help provide nationwide service by matching personnel demand and supply. These kinds of agencies evaluate the bio-data of several candidates and provide suitable names to their clients. These types of agencies are useful where large-scale screening is necessary and they charge fees for such services. These professional agencies attract higher-level executives by providing the right kind of offers. Management consultancy firms facilitate the organizations to recruit technical, professional, and managerial personnel. They especially deal in middle and top-level executive placements. These firms manage huge sets of data people with different qualifications and skills, and also advertise jobs in the place of their clients to recruit the right person for the right job.

 

6.     Campus Recruitment: Recruitments are also done through colleges and institutions of management and technology. These have become a significant source of recruitment for technical, professional, and managerial jobs. Several huge organizations keep close contact with universities, vocational schools, and management institutes to recruit qualified candidates for different kinds of jobs. Educational institutions are a widespread and normal practice for businesses for recruitment.

 

7.     Recommendations of Employees: A lot of times, the present employees, or their friends or relatives may introduce applicants. This might be a good source of recruitment. Also, the background detail of the candidates are well known, so it is easier to select them. Some kind of introductory screening takes place because the employees working there know the company as well as the candidates, and therefore, would try to satisfy both of them.

 

8.     Labour Contractors: Labour contractors are helpful as they keep close contact with labourers and in providing the necessary amount of unskilled workers in a short period. The labour contractors are themselves employees of the organization and perform the work of recruiting labourers whenever necessary. But if the same employee of the organization who is the labour contractor chooses to leave the organization, the labourers hired by him will also leave.

 

9.     Advertising on Television: Proving advertisements on television is now becoming much more popular these days. It is attracting the attention of a large number of people. Also, whenever there is a vacancy, the job details and required skills regarding the job are posted along with the profile of the organization.

 

10.  Web Publishing: The most common source of recruitment nowadays is the Internet. People can apply as well as post jobs through websites that are specially designed for this purpose. These websites are frequently visited by both candidates or job-seekers and organizations in search of required employees.