Human Resource Management - Recruitment.

In a typical advertisement, there could be a short description of the general job duties, followed by a listing of the qualifications and description of the persons who would be suited for the job. Interested readers are invited to write, call, or go for interviews.

Through institutions

Sometimes the company would approach the colleges or educational institutions, when they are seeking fresh entrants to the labour force. The public relations department and instructors in the different schools may serve in some liaison capacity between employer and students.

Through Recommendations

Employees may also recommend friends or relatives to work for the company. The company sometimes encourages this method. Some firms offer incentives to workers for recommending their friends to the company.

Other Methods

Candidates can on their own initiative write to companies offering their services. This could be another source of workers. Firms may file these for reference when vacancies occur. Companies may also seek the help of employment agencies.

The methods listed above are not comprehensive. Recruitment methods differ, limited perhaps by imagination, cost, and practicality.

It should be noted that recruitment efforts take place in the context of an organisation – its location, size, growth potential, opportunities for development, work environment, and general reputation. All these factors interact and affect the type of applicant that may be attracted to work in any company. For example, some factories in Singapore choose to be located near housing estates so that they can recruit more easily workers from that locality.

The movements of jobs and a larger portion of the population of the suburbs have been disastrous for unemployed persons living in the central city. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of those left behind are the minorities who, as a group, have the highest rate of unemployment. More than 60 percent of the nations unemployed are blacks, for example, live in the central cities.

Those who might be able to qualify for jobs with employers in the suburbs become trapped in the core area of the city because of the absence of transportation and resources to commute to work outside the core area. Still, close to half of all black workers employed in the suburbs commute from the central city as compared with only 16percent of the total (largely white) suburban workers. Ironically, improvements in the public transportation systems to facilitate “reverse commuting” have not proven too successful. A major reason has been the low wages offered by suburban employers willing to hire central residents.   

Recruitment efforts take place in the context of an organisation – its location, size, growth potential, opportunities for development, work environment, and general reputation.

For this reason the recruitment process is different within different firms. For example, the two firms that will be discussed are Samsang and The Daniel’s Group.

Electronics giant, Samsung usually recruits about four graduates for entry-level positions in Australia. It is not economical to have a graduate recruitment team in their HR department. Instead, Samsung Electronics Australia’s National Human Resources and Operations Manager Rob Matzen has outsourced graduate recruitment to a specialist agency. In the same way, his executive appointments and call centre recruitment are also placed with specialist agencies.

“We want to get the right exposure and the right candidates –to find recruitment companies that are up to speed in their market. It's part of our overall recruitment strategy to enter into partnerships with these companies”, Mr Matzen says. “Our graduate recruitment company also offers sourceing and marketing on-campus and international recruitment options for our Asian subsidiaries.” he adds.

Companies know that graduates are very different to candidates with even two years’ experience –and need a unique recruitment process.

Similarly, graduate marketing requires significant specialist knowledge and is not simple to implement. With competition for top candidates high, it is also not for the faint hearted. In addition, graduates tend to be more time consuming to cull and to interview.

Put these factors together and many streamlined in-house HR units find graduates too great a drain on resources.

Matzen explains, “Because Samsung Electronics Australia is a small subsidiary, direct campus based interviews are not effective. It is more appropriate to have a specialist recruitment agency sort through applicants, referring to us only those they consider best fit our requirements for final selection”.

Publishing company Woodslane’s Linda Jansen explains that she uses a graduate specialist because they have a current database of candidates, know how to develop appealing advertising content, and target media accordingly to attract graduates.

"Therefore," she says, "the final outcome is a better quality candidate in a shorter timeframe."

The Daniel’s Group is one of Americas top executive construction firms, there perspective on the recruitment process is different than that of most executive construction firms. Having worked as managers in the industry they have a deep personal commitment to hiring the most talented managers in the market. 

Our sole measure of success is not the number of candidates they recruit in a year. Rather, they measure their performance by the impact those candidates have within their  organization. At the end of the day, the team with the most talent usually wins. 

As the leader of a homebuilding operation, it's easy to appreciate the cost of vacancy or underperformance in a key construction management position. In the course of building an 'A Team', you face the tough challenge of selection and performance evaluation, distinguishing liveability from effectiveness, and management from leadership. Confronting and resolving performance and 'fit' issues driven by growth and change is a difficult but also fundamental responsibility; we're here to help with that process.

The Daniel’s Group has the ability to distinguish the true seasoned performers from the great interviewers. Since prior performance is the best indicator of future success.

From the facts that have been obtained from the two companies, it is evident that Samsung and The Daniel’s Group practise different recruitment methods.

Samsung do not have a Human Resources department because they do not feel that it is economical and have therefore, outsourced their graduate recruitment to specialist agencies. They feel this is a good way of recruiting efficient candidates to their firm, as the agencies would pick only the people that they feel are suitable for the job.

This method of recruiting is probably the best way for Samsung because it may save them some money, in the sense that they don’t have to have a HR department and therefore they would not be spending excessive time interviewing candidates. Also they would only get suitable people for their company because the agency would make sure that people that are recruited are suitable for the job.

Another advantage that Samsung may have is that, they would rarely be understaffed. This is because as soon as a vacancy arises, they would be able to fill the vacancy, as they would have candidates the agency feels would be fit for the position.

This recruitment method seems to be less time consuming for Samsung as well as economical.

The Daniel’s Group has a different approach to the recruitment process. They prefer to be hands on with the whole process of recruitment. They know exactly the sort of candidates they wish to take on and therefore do their own interviews and recruitment for their firm.

The partners that do the recruiting have worked as managers and as a result of this, they have set a standard for the potential employees. People that apply to The Daniel’s Group have to be exceptionally good in the construction business because this area of work is very competitive in America and The Daniel’s Group are only looking for the best in the business.

This method of recruitment may be expensive in the sense that a lot of time is spent interviewing.

Book references

Herbert J. Sweeny and Kenneth S. Teel, “A New Look at Promotions from Within,” Personnel Journal, Vol. 58, No. 8 (August, 1979), pp. 531-535

Chruden and Sherman, “Managing Human Resources” 7th Edition published by South-Western Publishing company. Pp. 105  

Web references

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.   (18th February, 2004)

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