The process of job analysis is particularly useful to assess organization and job accountabilities. As HR manager makes decisions to effect work improvements, HR manager will be able to reassign accountabilities to better accommodate effective work flows and to gain better utilization of human resources.
Factors Affecting Recruitment
All Organizations, large or small, have to engage in recruitment. Some of them delegate the job to HR Managers, while others involve the HR Managers directly on the job. Some organizations continuously indulge in recruitment while others may do it infrequently. Here, size may be an important factor. For example, an organization with hundred thousand employees will have to continually engage in recruiting, like fast food firms or service organizations.
The employment conditions in the community where the organization is located may be a factor for attracting potential job applicants. Here certain, geographic factors and location advantages play an important role.
The effect of past recruiting efforts, which show the organization’s ability to locate and keep good people, is another criterion. For example, if an organization follows the promotional policy of recruiting from within, the employees will be motivated to continue in such an organization. Also, the compensation and benefits package offered by an organization influence and attract the employees.
Sources of Recruitment
There are two general source of recruiting, internal and external. Internal recruitment seeks candidates from among the ranks of those currently employed. With the exception of entry-level positions, most organizations try to fill positions with their current employees. Many large organizations will attempt to develop their own employees for positions higher than the entry level.
The advantage of internal recruitment include building employee morale, encourages good individuals who are ambitious, less cost than going outside recruit, reduced orientation. Companies that practice internal recruitment are more likely to be successful financially than companies that rely on external recruitment for top positions.
However, certain disadvantages also exist in the internal recruitment process. When the organization contemplates change, the existing employees may not act as change masters. A monotonous kind of environment and same people may not be the right conditions for fostering creativity among employees.
In companies where internal recruitment is followed, there has to be in place a succession planning at managerial level. This is possible in large organizations. However, in small and medium companies, job posting is a common practice. Job posting is a process where announcements of positions are made available to all current employees through company newsletters, bulletin boards, etc. When properly implemented, job –posting systems can substantially improve the quality of job placements that are made within an organization. Employees can get information about job openings through connected computers as an advantage for corporate intranet.
One of the internal recruitment processes is employee referrals. Employee referrals are an alternative choice of locating potential employees for those hard-to-fill positions. A recommendation from a current employee regarding the job applicant is considered the best source. It is because an employee will recommend someone only when he believes that the individual can perform efficiently.
The recommending employee often gives the applicant a more realistic view and information about the job than what is conveyed through advertisements. This information reduces realistic job anxieties and increases job survival. As a result, employees referrals tend to be more acceptable and once employed seem to have a high job survival rate. In doing so, both organization and the employee will have their own benefits. The employee is filled to the position and organization receives a qualified candidate without incurring major expenses in searching for candidates.
However, employees may be tempted to recommend their friends and relatives to the organization. This might lead to nepotism and may not exactly align with the objectives of the organization.
External recruitment concerns recruitment from outside the organization. External recruitment is usually a costly process. If an organization out sources the process, the entire procedure involves a lot of expenses.
One of the fastest-growing approaches to recruit today is use of the Internet, which dramatically extends an organization’s recruiting reach. Although traditional recruiting methods such as print advertisements and job fairs work effective, recruiting job applicants online, offers access to a wider pool of applicants and can save time and money. Nevertheless, in this process, very little information about the background of the applicants is available for study. Walk-in, write-in, advertising, private employment agencies, campus recruitment, head hunters, military, voluntary organizations, professional organizations and temporary help are the sources for external recruitment.
Recruitment Best Practices
1.) Recruitment Advertising
Any organization recruiting employees want the best person for the job. In order to attract the right people for the jobs, the HR practitioners have to place the advertisement in the correct place, so well the content of the advertisement. Advertising can differ from a simple advertisement in a classified page to an elaborate media campaign through radio/television/Internet to attract applicants. While advertising in the newspapers, the geographical locations and availability of workers in the local market need to be taken into consideration.
A good advertisement will envisage the type of applicant one is trying to recruit. Second, the advantage and benefits that the employee would experience by joining the company needs to be highlighted. Third, the coverage area, whether local or national, has to be decided.
2.) Legal Considerations
Organizations must ensure that their recruiting practices conform to the law. In US, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws stipulate that recruiting and hiring decisions cannot discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, or sex. Further, in government offices, the reservation guidelines need to be followed wherever applicable. Most large companies try to comply EEO guidelines, because it makes good business sense. EEO is about merit. It means selecting the best person for the job in terms of his or her job-related skills.
3.) Costs of recruitment
Recruiting efforts by an organization are always costly. This ongoing search for best applicants may be limited by budgetary constraints. Usually, an organization would like to maximize its recruiting travel budget by interviewing over the phone or through videoconference.
4.) Organization Image
It is a well-known fact that candidates will be attracted to a reputed organization only. Employees who are already working in reputed firms would like to continue in the organizations. The image of a company is perceived as low because of its non-performance, low turnover, policies and practices that pollute environment, poor quality products, unsafe or inadequate working conditions. Such factors can and do reduce the organizations’ ability to attract the best personnel available.
5.) Attractiveness of the job
If the position to be filled is unattractive, recruiting a large and qualified pool of candidates will be difficult. Employers find it difficult to get suitable candidates for jobs that are considered as routine, boring, physically hazardous, wrongly scheduled, low paying, lacking in promotional potential, etc.
6.) Realistic Job Previews
Job analysis also helps improve recruiting effectiveness by enabling the creation of realistic job previews. A realistic job preview gives applicants all pertinent and realistic information whether positive and negative about the job and the organization. Individuals have a better basis on which to determine their suitability to the organization and select their suitable positions based on full information.
7.) Recruitment policy
An organization’s recruitment policy provides the framework for recruiting action and reflects the organization’s recruitment objectives. It details the overriding principles to be followed by management in general and by the HR manager in particular, regarding recruitment.
Summary and Recommendation
A good place to start is with a full recruitment process audit that covers the entire recruitment process of organization. This audit will bring out the existing positives and highlight areas for improvement within the organisation’s recruitment cycle.
Essentially, this audit will result in identifying and assessing the recruitment responsibilities of all the hiring managers in different departments of the organisation. The hiring managers, should be meaningfully engaged in a healthy dialogue with an aim to improve the existing recruitment processes.
Effective Recruitment Strategy and Activities
HR manager need to examine the organization’s long-range and short-range HR needs and changing conditions in the labor market in order to sustain an effective recruitment. For an example, forecasting. The purpose of human resource forecasting is to estimate labor requirement for future time period. Such forecasts are of two types, demand forecasting and supply forecasting.
Usually demand forecast is prepared when there are technological changes, demands of consumers. A forecast of labor demand derives from a projection of how business needs will affect HR. Hence the HR manager should be in a position to anticipate the needs and set priorities from among conflicting goals. The organization needs to adopt the skilled-workers or knowledgeable-workers while investing in new technology.
A good starting point for projecting the firm’s future supply of labor is assessing its current supply of labor. The simple’s method of internal supply forecast is succession planning or the career plans orchestrated by the organization.
Adopt a consistent recruitment model. Ensure that have a clear understanding of the best methods to utilize when attracting applicants to organization business and then develop a strategy to incorporate these. For instance, HR manager may go via recruitment agencies, through ads on the internet, ads in local newspapers, on official website. Whatever route has been adopted, always make sure that it is consistent from the language and branding used, through to the call to action.
Set up review meetings, or organize focus groups on a regular basis where can discuss and share best practice, identify areas that need further improvement, report on improvement of performance indicators and success of attraction methods. Set aside time to research the changes with existing and new hires to the organization by engaging them and reviewing against the initial recruitment process audit.
