Recruitment. Identify how two organisations plan recruitment using internal and external sources.

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BTEC Extended Diploma in Business Unit 13 Recruitment Gemma Parnell

Task 1 Identify how two organisations plan recruitment using internal and external sources. You will need to show you understand the reasons why vacancies occur, and the factors which influence organisations to recruit. You will need to consider internal and external recruitment and the time and cost implications of each method. You must include two organisations in your work, so make sure you choose them carefully.

I have chosen to look at Tesco’s and Culture Café.

Recruitment is the activity of employing workers to fill vacancies or enrolling new members. Employment recruitment is composed of several stages: verifying that a vacancy exists; drawing up a job specification; finding candidates; selecting them by interviewing and other means; and making a job offer.

There may be many different reasons for a vacancy to arise in a business. There could be temporary vacancies to cover long term sickness, maternity/paternity leave or to cover busy periods for example Christmas. Permanent vacancies may arise due to a member of staff leaving, a new role being created or the company is expanding and possibly because of changes in the organisation. Culture Café is a growing business where new contracts are always being tendered for, this means that they will often be new sites where new staff will be needed, although sometimes the staff who worked for the previous catering company will be employed by Culture Café.  

Effective recruitment is important in achieving high organizational performance and minimizing staff turnover. Employees may be recruited either externally or internally.

Companies can choose to recruit internally, this is when they employ an existing member of staff to do a different job, this may then mean that their previous role is then available and may need to be recruited externally. Sometimes the duties from the vacancy are shared between existing members of staff. This would mean that staff have more work to do, and depending on their existing duties this may not be a viable option for many companies as their staff may be put under too much pressure. This is however a much cheaper option for companies as staffing costs are usually very high for a business. Culture Café often recruits internally especially when some staff would like more or less hours or to work in a different site and when more suitable vacancies arise they will recruit internally and help staff to learn new skills and encourage career progression, but ultimately most of their staff will be recruited externally.

External recruitment is when a company recruits staff from outside of the business.

Before Tesco’s decides to recruit they need to look very carefully to see if they need to recruit new staff. Businesses are sometimes restructured and everyone’s roles may be reconsidered and jobs may be changed around internally. Duties may be shared to other workers. Future changes also need to be considered as technology may replace the need for certain roles or possibly create new roles. Staffing is expensive so all roles need to be looked at carefully so that all the duties can be performed properly but companies are also not over spending. Making sure that the company has enough money to employ someone and that someone is needed to perform the tasks is very important in business. These are all factors a company needs to consider before deciding to hire more staff.

Once a company has decided to recruit they will need to consider whether they want to recruit internally or externally. Internal recruitment is quick and more cost effective and it means that the person they employ already has a better understanding of how the organisation works. Many companies choose to recruit internally for higher level roles and feel that employees should be able to work towards promotions and staff that are recruited externally start lower down the ladder. Aldi is a company that has decided that all external applicants start at the bottom and higher level positions such as managerial roles are recruited internally.

Internal recruitment is cheaper and encourages career progression. Candidates already have good knowledge of the business and the employer has a good understanding of the employee as they are known to them. The disadvantages of internal recruitment are that there would be a limited choice of candidates and it may not generate new ideas into the business. There also may be problems amongst employees due to the competition and changes.

Sometimes a company may be happy with the roles their existing employees do, or feel that there is not a suitable applicant within the organisation or there may not be willing applicants so they may decide to recruit externally. There may also be times where a role is filled using internal recruitment but this leaves their previous role vacant and this role may be filled externally.

External recruitment will usually generate a higher number of candidates and could bring new ideas and skills into the business. It is however more expensive to advertise, and takes longer. It is also hard for employers to find the right person as people may not be as good as they appear in the interview so bad choices can be made. However this can also happen when a company decides to recruit internally as the applicant may struggle with new tasks and duties they have undertaken.

When a company decides to recruit they need to think about the tasks and duties that need to be fulfilled and this need to be explained clearly within a job advert. The company will also need to think carefully about the skills, experience and qualifications they would like the successful candidate to have. Once they have a good understanding of what they are looking for they need to create an advertisement. They also need to think carefully about where they advertise this job to attract the right people to apply. Job centres are popular places for employers to advertise vacancies as this is where people go to get advice on different jobs and benefits. Companies may also decide to advertise in the local newspaper, through employment agencies, job websites such as monster.co.uk or totaljobs.com or they may use consultants. Specialist consultants give advice and help them to recruit. They may work with candidates and match them up with the right vacancies; this saves companies a lot of time because they do not have to deal with people who are not suitable for the role. Consultants will charge a fee for these services. Tesco’s may choose to use the jobcentre and newspaper advertising when they are employing a large number of people, for example when a new store is opening otherwise they tend to advertise on their website and in-store.

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Recruitment agencies work in a similar way to consultants. Often recruitment agencies will provide staff on a temporary or permanent basis. This can help companies when they may only need staff on a temporary basis to deal with busy periods or changes within the company. Companies can also employ people on a temporary basis to see how well they work before offering them a permanent contract. Recruitment agencies select the right candidates for the needs of the business who is their client.

Using recruitment agencies and consultants can take a lot of pressure off a company and they are ...

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