Recruitment
means search of the prospective employee to suit the job requirements as represented by job specification–a technique of job analysis. It is the first stage in selection which makes the vacancies known to a large number of people and the opportunities that the organisation offers. In response to this knowledge, potential applicants would write to the organisation. The process of attracting people to apply in called recruitment.
Dale S. Beach has defined ―Recruitment as the development and maintenance of adequate manpower resources. It involves thecreation of a pool of available labour upon whom the organisation can depend when it needs additional employees.
According to Edwin B. Flippo : ―Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation.
Sources of Recruitment :
The various sources of recruitment are generally classified as internal source and external source.
(a) Internal Sources: This refers to the recruitment from within the company. The various internal sources are promotion, transfer, past employees and internal advertisements.
(b) External Sources : External sources refers to the practice of getting suitable persons from outside. The various external sources are advertisement, employment exchange, past employees, private placement agencies and consultants, walks-ins, campus recruitment, trade unions, etc.
The following external sources of recruitment are commonly used by big enterprises:
Direct Recruitment: An important source of recruitment is direct recruitment by placing a notice on the notice board of the enterprise specifying the details of the jobs available. It is also known as recruitment at factory gate. The practice of· direct recruitment is generally followed for filling casual vacancies requiring unskilled workers. Such workers are known as casual or badly workers and they are paid remuneration on daily-wage basis. This method of recruitment is very cheap as it does not involve any cost of advertising vacancies.
Casual Callers or Unsolicited Applications: The organisations which are regarded as good employers draw a steady stream of unsolicited applications in their offices. This serves as a valuable source of manpower. If adequate attention is paid to maintain pending application folders for various jobs, the personnel department may find the unsolicited applications useful in filling the vacancies whenever they arise. The merit of this source of recruitment is that it avoids the costs of recruiting workforce from other sources.
Media Advertisement: Advertisement in newspapers or trade and professional journals is generally used when qualified and experienced personnel are not available from other sources. Most of the senior positions in industry as well as commerce are filled by this method. The advantage of advertising is that more information about the organization job descriptions and job specifications can be given in advertisement to allow self-screening .by the prospective candidates. Advertisement gives the management a wider range of candidates from which to choose. Its disadvantage is that is may bring in a flood of response, and many times, from quite unsuitable candidates.
Employment Agencies: Employment exchanges run by the Government are regarded as a good source of recruitment for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled operative jobs. In some cases, compulsory notification of vacancies to the employment exchange is required by law. Thus, the employment exchanges bring the jobs givers in contact with the job seekers. However, in the technical and professional area, private agencies and professional bodies appear to be doing most of the work. Employment exchanges and selected private agencies provide a nation-wide service in attempting to match personnel demand and supply.
Management Consultants: Management consultancy firms help the organisations to recruit technical, professional and managerial personnel They specialise middle level and top level executive placements. They maintain data bank of persons with different qualifications and skills and even advertise the jobs on behalf their clients to recruit right type of personnel.
Educational Institutions or Campus Recruitment: Jobs in commerce and industry have become increasing technical and complex to the point where school and college degrees are widely required. Consequently big organisations maintain a close liaison with the universities, vocational institutes and management institutes for recruitment to various jobs.
Recruitment from educational institutional is a well - established practice of thousand of business and other organisations.1t is also known as campus recruitment. Reputed industrial houses which require management trainees send their officials to campuses of various management institutes for picking up talented candidates doing MBA.
Recommendation: Applicants introduced by friends and relatives may prove to be a good source of recruitment. In fact, many employers prefer to take such persons because something about their background is known. When a present-employee or a business friend recommends some one for a job, a type of preliminary screening is done and the person is placed on a job.
Labour Contractors: Labour contractors are an important source of recruitment in some industries in India. Workers are recruited through labour contractors who are themselves employees of the organisation. The disadvantage of this system is that if the contractor leaves the organisation , all the workers ,employed through him will also leave That is why this source of labour is not preferred by many businesses, organizations. Recruitment through labour contractors has been banned for the public sector units.
Telecasting: The practice of telecasting of vacant posts over T.V. is gaining importance these days. Special programmes like ‗Job Watch‘, ‗Youth Pulse‘, Employment News‘, etc, over the T.V have become quite popular in recruitment for various types of jobs. The detailed requirements of the job and the qualities required to do it are publicized along with the profile of the organisation where vacancy exists. The use of T.V. as a source of recruitment is less as compared to other sources.
Raiding : Raiding is a technical term used when employees working elsewhere are attracted to join organisations. The organisations are always on the lookout for qualified professionals, and are willing to offer them a better deal if they make the switch. There are always some employees who are professionally very competent, but dissatisfied with something or the other in the organisation. They form the ‗easy‘ group to attract. The other group is formed of those who are equally competent but are quite satisfied with their present position. To attract them, the organisation has to offer a very lucrative package of perquisites. Whatever may be the means used to attract, often it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about.
MERITS OF EXTERNAL SOURCES
The merits of external sources of recruitment are as under:
Qualified Personnel: By using external sources of recruitment the management can make qualified and trained people to apply for vacant Jobs in the organisation.
Wider choice : When vacancies are advertised widely a large number of applicants from outside the organisation apply. The management has a wider choice while selecting the people for employment.
Fresh Talent: The insiders may have limited talents. External sources facilitate infusion of fresh blood with new ideas into the enterprise. This will improve the overall working of the enterprise.
Competitive Spirit: If a company can tap external sources, the existing staff will have to compete with the outsiders. They will work harder to show better performance.
DEMERIT OF EXTERNAL SOURCE
The demerits of filling vacancies from external sources are as follows:
Dissatisfaction among Existing Staff: External recruitment may lead to dissatisfaction and frustration among existing employees. They may feel that their chances of promotion are reduced.
Lengthy Process: Recruitment from outside takes a long time. The business has to notify the vacancies and wait for applications to initiate the selection process.
Costly Process: It is very costly to recruit staff from external sources. A lot of money has to be spent on advertisement and processing of applications.
Uncertain Response: The candidates from outside may not be suitable for the enterprise. There is no guarantee that the enterprise will be able to attract right kinds of people from external sources.
EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVE SOURCES
A company cannot fill all its vacancies from one single source. It must carefully combine some of these sources, weighing their cost and flexibility, the quality of men they supply, and their effect on the present work force. Following are some of the measures which can be used to assess how good or how poor various sources have proved to be:
Timelag between Requisition and Placement: The basic statistics needed to estimate the time lag are the time-lapse data. To take an example, a company‘s past experience may show that the average number of days from application to interview is 15 from interview to offer is 5, from offer to acceptance is 7 and from acceptance to report for work is 21. Therefore, if the company begins its recruitment and selection process today, the best estimate is that it will be 48 days before the new employee is added to the pay-roll. With this information, the ‗length‘ of the pipe-line for alternative sources of recruitment can be described and suitable recruiting sources chosen.
Yield Ratios: These ratios tell us about the number of leads/contacts needed to generate a -given number of hires in a given time. To take an example, suppose a company is contemplating expansion and needs 10 additional engineers in the next 6 months. On the basis of its past experience the company predicts as under: We must extend offers to 2 candidates to gain one acceptance. If we need 10 engineers we will have to extend 20 offers. Further, if the interview -to-offer ratio has been 3 : 2 then 30 interviews must be conducted and since the invitees to interview ratio is 4: 3 then as many as 40 candidates must be invited. Finally, if contacts or leads required to find suitable candidates to invite are in 6 : 1 proportions then 240 contacts be made.
Employee Attitude Studies: These studies try to discover the reactions of present employees to both external and internal sources of recruitment.
Correlation Studies: These studies tell us about the extent of correlation which, exists between different sources of recruitment and factors of success on the job.
Selection : To select means to choose. Selection is a part of the recruitment function. It is the process of choosing people by obtaining and assessing information about the applicants (age, qualification, experience and qualities) with a view of matching these with the job requirements and picking up the most suitable candidates. The choices are made by elimination of the unsuitable at successive stages of the selection process.