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.
 Internal Factors:
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.
 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
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.
 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.
 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.
 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
 Steps in selection procedure:

1. Reception of applications or preliminary screening

2. Application bank that gives a detail about the applicant’s
background and life history
3.A well conducted interview to explore the applicant’s
background
4. The physical examination
5. Psychological testing that gives an objective look at a candidates
suitability for that job
6. A reference check
7. Final Selection approved by the manager
8. Communication of the decision to the candidate.
 Therefore the Selection Process can be
pictorially represented in a flowchart as below:

Establishing Selection Process -> Identifying &

choosing selection criteria -> Gathering
information about potential employees ->
Evaluating information for assessing applicant
-> Making decision to select or reject ->
Communicating decision
Thus the selection process should be planned
such that human resource is efficiently used.
The right person for the right job and
inducting her/him into the organization or
department successfully is the basic criteria of
the entire process.
 Selection is the process of evaluating the
qualifications, experience, skill, knowledge, etc, of
an applicant in relation to the requirements of the
job to determine his suitability for the job. The
selection procedure is concerned with securing
relevant information from applicants and selecting
the most suitable among them, based on an
assessment of how successful the employee would
be in the job, if he were placed in the vacant
position.
 The selection process has two basic
objectives:
(a) To predict which applicant would be the most successful
if selected for the job.
(b) To sell the organization and the job to the right
candidate. The selection process is based on the
organizational objectives, the job specification and the
recruitment policy of the organization. The various
selection processes are initial screening, application
forms, selection tests, group discussions, interviews and
reference checks.
 To facilitate a near accurate prediction of an
applicant's success on the job, the selection
methods should meet several generic
standards of reliability, validity,
generalizability, utility and legality. The
application form is a formal record of an
individual's application for employment. It is
usually used in the preliminary screening of
job applicants.
The filled-in application forms provide
pertinent information about the individual and
are used in the job interview and for reference
checks to determine the applicant's suitability
for employment.
There are two methods of evaluating these
forms –
A. the clinical method
B. the weighted method.
Selection tests, which are widely used include
intelligence tests, aptitude tests, achievement
tests, situational tests, interest tests, and
personality tests.
 Interviews help managers to fill the gaps in the
information obtained through the application
blanks and tests. Interviews also enable the
management to make an impact on the job
applicant's view of the organization, apart
from assessing his job-related behavior and
attitude. Interviews may be classified as
preliminary, selection and decision-making,
based on their timing and purpose.
 The process of interviewing consists of several
steps such as preparation for the interview,
ensuring a setting, and conducting, closing and
evaluating. The selection process also uses
background investigation or reference checks to
check the authenticity of the information
provided by the applicant. Finally, after an
applicant is selected, the offer is made to him and
on acceptance, the placement process starts.