NOTES 9 - ABOUT RECRUITMENT

RECRUITMENT

It is the discovering of potential of applicants for actual or anticipated organizational vacancies. It actually links together those with jobs and those seeking jobs.

Flippo's definition: "It is a process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an organization."
Thus the purpose of recruitment is to locate sources of manpower to meet job requirements and job specifications.

Factors affecting Recruitment:
1. The size of the organization.
2. The employment conditions in the community where the organization is located.
3. The effects of past recruiting efforts which show the organization's ability to locate and retain the good performing people.
4. Working conditions, salary and benefit packages offered by the organization.
5. Rate of growth of the organization.
6. The future expansion and production programs.
7. Cultural, economic and legal factors.

However these factors may be divided specifically as Internal and External factors.

Internal Factors:
1. Recruitment policy of the organization
2. Human resource planning strategy of the company
3. Size of the organization and number of people employed
4. Cost involved in recruiting employees
5. Growth and expansion plans of the organization

External Factors:
1. Supply and demand of specific skills in the labour market.
2. Political and legal factors like reservations of jobs for specific sections of society etc
3. The job seekers image perception of the company.

Steps of a Recruitment Process:
Personnel recruitment process involves five elements:
1. A recruitment policy
2. A recruitment organization
3. A forecast of manpower
4. The development of sources of recruitment
5. Different techniques used for utilizing these sources & a method of assessing the recruitment program

These five elements are further elaborated below:

1. Recruitment Policy: It defines the objective of the recruitment and also provides a framework for the implementation of the recruitment program. The policy should be based upon corporate goals and needs. The criteria for selection and preferences should include merit and suitability.

2. Recruitment organization: It is necessary to centralize the recruitment and selection function in a single office. This will bring about maximum efficiency and success in hiring. This centralized office is known as the Employee Office or the Recruitment Section.

3. Forecast of Manpower: This usually specifies:
a. Jobs or Operations for which the person should be available.
b. Duration of their employment.
c. Salary to be offered & terms of the employment
d. Necessary qualification and experience

4. Sources of Recruitment: There can be two kinds of sources for recruitment:
a. Internal – This includes personnel already on the payroll of an organization. Whenever there is a vacancy, somebody within the organization fills in or is upgraded.
b. External – These sources lie outside the organization.

5. Methods of Recruitment: The possible recruiting methods can be divided into three categories:
a. Direct – In this method, recruiters visit colleges and technical schools, e.g. Infosys, the Tata Group, Accenture, IBM, Siemens and several other companies maintain continuous relationship with institutions to hire students for responsible positions.
b. Indirect – This involves advertising in newspaper, radio, T.V., journals etc. Advertising can be very effective if its media is properly chosen.
c. Third Party methods – This include use of commercial or private employment agencies, placement officials of schools, recruitment firms etc. Friends and relatives of present employees are also a good source from which employees may be drawn as part of the "Buddy Referral" programs.

Thus broadly the Personnel Recruitment Process can be mapped in a Flowchart as below:

Personnel/Human Resource Planning -> Locating needed Personnel -> Selecting Qualified Personnel -> Placing New Employees on the Job