Internal recruitment does not always produce the number or quality of workers needed, in such cases organisations may need to recruit from external sources, either by advertising vacancies in newspapers, magazines and journals, and the visual or audio media; using employment agencies (job centre), advertising online via internet, or through job fairs and the use of college recruitment.
The purpose of posting vacancies is to bring the attention of all interested persons (within or without an organisation) the jobs that are to be filled.
Internal recruitment
There are good reasons for using internal sources for recruitment.
Advantages – internal recruitment
- It is cheap to advertise
- All the applicants will be familiar with the business and they will also be known by the business meaning there will be no need to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a staff member. There is a risk of employing an outsider as they are only desirable on paper.
- The applicants will already have knowledge about the business and how it runs; this will obviously result in shorter periods of training and time to fit in
- Internal promotion motivates staff to work harder, this also encourages career progression
- The business will not be distracted by someone that does not know how things work in the firm
Disadvantages – internal recruitment
- Not a lot of candidates will available to consider
- Problems internally within employees can occur
- Someone may need to be recruited to take the promoted employees place
External recruitment
External recruiting can be divided into two parts, Informal and formal.
Informal recruiting methods enter a smaller market than formal methods. Informal methods can involve rehiring previous employees and choosing from among those.
Formal methods of external recruiting are searching the labour market more widely for candidate no previous connection to the organisation. Such methods usually include newspaper/magazine/journal advertising, the use of employment agencies and executive search firms, and college recruitment. More often, now, job/career fairs and e-Recruiting are reaching the job seeker market.
Posting vacancies externally through the media or through employment agencies reaches a wider audience and can also help bring up a greater number of potential candidates from which the organisation can choose.
At the same time this method can be quite expensive and can also take quite a lot of time as the organisation works through advertisements in newspapers, periodicals and journals are and will continue to be an important way to reach potential candidates.
Recruiting agencies are become much more popular, particularly when searching for management level positions. This method of recruiting does cost quite a lot of money. Executive search firms usually find candidates for jobs quicker than most organisations as the recruiting agencies have larger databases of people.
Professional organisations say that the best jobs are never advertised, their availability is communicated by word of mouth. Therefore networking is a method for recruiting, particularly at the senior management level in certain industries.
In several cases, networking is a method and strategy used by majority recruitment agencies.
Advantages – External recruitment
- There are usually a high number of applicants to choose from
- Candidates may come in with new ideas
- New skills and management techniques could be brought in from their previous workplace and they may be adopted while working
- Newcomers will usually be more flexible than existing staff and they can also be very useful to businesses
Disadvantages – External recruitment
- Recruiting is a long process
- Applicants given the job may not live up to the expectations of the business
- The job offer is expensive to advertise
- Newcomers may struggle and find it difficult to get used to employees, meaning the newcomers will be under performing for a certain period of time
Organisation of the workforce
Job analysis
A job analysis has to be carried out for a vacancy, regardless of whether the vacancy is internally or externally. A job analysis is made to decide whether or not a new job is required. This analysis is also made to make the position available and attractive to the right candidate straight away. If the organisation was to attract the perfect candidate, the human resources department must state exactly what the want and be precise about it.
A job analysis has to have proper information about:
- The job and what it will involve
- The qualities required for the job, qualifications and personal attributes
- Wages
- Hours
A job analysis helps decide whether a job is required.
Job description
A job description is developed to state basic information about the job itself and the role of the employee for that job. A copy of the job description is usually sent to all applicants so they are aware of what they are doing and to make sure that they are fit for the job before they apply. It is vital to add the following information in the job description; job title, department and location, responsibilities, position within the organisational structure and scope of post.
Person specification
A person specification is also known as a job specification. This lets the applicant to form a description of his or herself. This description made by the applicant examines the applicant’s personal attributer including physical attributes, qualifications, experience, training, competence, personal circumstances, attitudes and practical and intellectual skills. This shows a proper profile of the type of person the business needs to do the job. A person specification is a summary which provides knowledge relating to the skills needed which are essential to the post or desirable.
Methods of application
The method of application is the way people can apply for the vacancy being advertised. The organisation decide on the method of application suitable to the post, for example, if an applicant is applying for a teachers job, the method would be different that of a head teacher. The most popular methods of application are given below:
- Curriculum Vitae (CV) - this is a statement showing the applicants details on education, past and present employments as well as details of referees that can vouch for them.
- Letter of application – A letter of application is created by the applicant based on a set of questions given by the employers, this is very straightforward and it makes it easier for the business to compare applicants
- In person, applicants go to the business and apply face to face, these applications take place in smaller businesses
Recruitment practices and procedures
There are certain businesses which do not have the time or the appropriate staff to carry out general recruitment practices and procedures; therefore they decide to employ agencies to do their recruitment work for them. This method is known as outsourcing.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing can involve the following:
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Job centres, this is a type of agency which is run by the government employment service. The main aim of job centres is to help people who are unemployed find a job. Job centres can be accessed by anyone. These agencies provide information on things such as entitlements to benefits and training advice for people that want to work in the UK or the EU.
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Head hunters are used by businesses that need workers in a specialised area as well as workers that are highly sought after. The aim of head hunters is to find people which are hugely successful in a certain field of work and inform them of better jobs in another business in an attempt to persuade them to move to a different workforce. Head hunters are different in the same sense that they search for people that show they have a lot of potential in a job, for example. Some one that sells the most amount of cars in a dealership.
Advantages of using an agency
- The business is able to focus on the current affairs of the business rather tan focusing on hiring employees
- The business does not have to employ a recruitment team
- The agency has the technology and details of all applicants and can single out those that are not suitable
- The agency does not disclose any information to other businesses that the company is recruiting
Disadvantages of using an agency
- The cost of using an agency is usually quite high
- The agency may not be able to find the right person as the agency itself does not actually work in the organisation meaning it may not have the right motivation to recruit the best person for the job
Advertising a post
There are several ways of advertising a post. Certain businesses use newspapers, posters, emails and fax as a method of advertising a vacancy. The internet is becoming more and more popular for advertising jobs. Jobs can also be advertised through agencies or job centres. Very few vacancies are advertised within a business. The reason for this is because the business feels that they already have the expertise available. All organisations have to advertise their vacancies as wide as possible; this is because they have to comply with equal opportunities legislation. Businesses have to also recruit internally and externally. The reason for this is because if they only recruit internally then they may no find t the most suitable person for the job; also if they decide to recruit externally, it can be expensive. This can take a lot of time and there may be fewer and better applicants compared to a job advertised externally.
One of the best ways of advertising a job externally is to place an advertisement in the newspapers. Depending on the size of the advert, the cost of an advert can vary from £40 to £8,000. Advertising online has started to become much popular amongst organisations. Each organisation which publishes adverts online has their own house style for their advertisements meaning they are likely to use the same layout for the vacancies they advertise in and out of an organisation. This allows the public to recognise a job vacancy in the organisation.
McDonalds and Asda
McDonalds
McDonalds was founded in 1940 by Dick McDonald in San Bernardino, California. This organisation is the largest chain of fast food restaurants selling fast food. More recently, with the successful expansion of McDonalds into many international markets, the company has become a symbol of globalisation. McDonalds opened its first restaurant in 1974 in the Auk. Today more than 2.5million people in this country place their trust in McDonalds each day, trusting the company to provide them with food of a high standard, quick service and value for money.
Asda
Asda is a huge supermarket chain. It retails in food, clothing, toys and general merchandise. It actually became the subsidiary of the American retail giant Wal Mart., the world’s largest and successful retailer in 1999 and is the second largest chain in the UK after Tesco overtaking Sainsbury’s. Asda is Wal-Mart's largest non-U.S subsidiary, accounting for almost half of the company's international sales.
McDonalds
Transfers
The employees of McDonalds are transferred from one department to another according to their efficiency and experience.
Promotions
The employees of McDonalds are promoted from one department to another with more benefits and greater responsibility based on efficiency and experience.
Retired and retrenched employees
The retired and retrenched employees of McDonalds may also be recruited again in case of shortage of qualified personnel or increase in load of work. Recruitment with such people saves time and costs of McDonalds as the people are already aware of the organisational culture and the policies and procedures.
Internal vacancies are usually advertised within McDonalds through the following:
- Staff notice boards
- Intranets
- In house magazines/newsletters (for example, Emap, this is a major publishing business) have a weekly staff magazine devoted solely to advertising jobs within the organisation
- Staff meetings
The external sources which they use are also given below:
Internet
McDonalds use their own company website to publish vacancies. Below I have given a screen print of the home page along with its website. The McDonalds recruitment website covers several aspects regarding recruitment, the following are the links on the website: Our company, Our roles, Our people, your career with us, your questions answered, Apply now. These links go into more depth once they are accessed.
Newspapers
McDonalds use newspapers such as Daily Mirror, and The Sun to publish vacancies. This external method of recruiting is very effective as it has reach to a wider audience.
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Recruitment Hotline
This is a type of agency however the search carried out by the potential employees is done over the phone. McDonalds give details of their vacancies to the recruitment hotline and they can publish these adverts to potential employees over the phone. McDonalds have to pay such agencies a fee for publishing their vacancies. An example of such a hotline is the initial UK hotline, the number is 0800 077 8963. This organisation publishes vacancies for a range of organisations within the UK.
Local job centres
Many organisations use local job centres to publish vacancies, McDonalds do the same. McDonalds will only publish vacancies in local job centres if a worker is desperately needed. If McDonalds are not desperate for workers then they will use other sources such as newspapers, internet, or other internal/external sources. It is quite costly to publish vacancies in job centres.
Asda
Asda use both internal and external sources to recruit employees. Asda is a huge retailer therefore this organisation makes good use of internal and external sources for recruitment.
Asda use the following internal sources to recruit employees:
Promotions
If employees within Asda are performing beyond expectations then there is a good chance that they will be promoted. This can be beneficial for both Asda and the employee. For example f there is a job vacant on a high post and Asda are looking for a employee, Asda can select an existing employee and promote him/her to a higher post. This will save Asda money and time and the employee will be working at a better post, this may even involve a pay rise.
Asda also recruit internally using electronic bulletin boards and its company newsletter.
Internal Mail
Asda have a internal mail system where only employees can log into and access important news about the company. For example if there was a post vacant in one of the Asda stores, before advertising externally Asda could send all its employees a message through internal mail informing them about the vacancy.
Asda also use several external sources to recruit employees, below I have given what external sources Asda use.
Newspapers
Asda use local newspapers to advertise their job vacancies, this depends on where the store is situated.
Job Centres
This is another external source which Asda use to publish their vacancies. Asda are likely to publish their vacancies to the job centres near the location of their store. When Asda publish a vacancy through a job centre they have to pay a fee depending on how big the advert is.
Internet
Internet is one of the most popular methods used to publish vacancies. Asda use their own website to publish vacancies so a wider audience have reach to the offer.
