Recruitment

Defining Recruitment

  • In the business context, recruitment refers to the process of identifying, attracting, and selecting suitable candidates for job vacancies within an organisation.
  • Recruitment is a crucial facet of human resource management and can directly impact a business’s success by ensuring it has the right personnel to achieve its strategic goals.

Recruitment Process

  • The recruitment process typically starts when a job vacancy arises, either due to the creation of a new role, a staff member leaving, or a lack of specific skills within the existing workforce.
  • The process broadly includes clarifying job descriptions and person specifications, placing job advertisements, reviewing applications, conducting interviews and assessments, and ultimately hiring the best candidate.

Internal VS External Recruitment

  • Internal recruitment involves filling vacancies from within the existing workforce. This can be done through promotions, transfers, or inviting employees to apply for vacancies.
  • Benefits of internal recruitment include reduced costs, familiarity with the candidate’s skills and work ethic, and often quicker hiring times.
  • External recruitment involves sourcing candidates from outside the organisation, utilising methods such as job adverts, recruitment agencies, job fairs, or social media.
  • External recruitment can be beneficial for introducing fresh ideas, new skills, and diverse experiences to the organisation.

Job Advertisements

  • Job advertisements should correctly and concisely relay the main details of a job role. They should include the job title, main responsibilities, necessary qualifications or skills, salary range, location, and how to apply.
  • The aim of a job advertisement is to attract the right candidates who have the necessary skills and attributes to perform the job well.

Selection

  • Selection is the next step after recruitment and involves choosing the most suitable candidate(s) from those who applied.
  • Selection strategies commonly include interviews, assessment centres, tests, and checks such as reference and background checks.
  • The chosen candidate(s) will then be offered a contract of employment, finalising their recruitment process.
  • Organisations must ensure that all stages of the recruitment process are conducted in a fair and non-discriminatory manner, in line with employment law.
  • This includes eliminating bias and discrimination on the grounds of protected characteristics like age, sex, race, and disability, amongst others.
  • Ensuring a fair recruitment process fosters diversity and inclusion, contributes to workplace harmony, and reduces the risk of legal action.

Understanding recruitment is a vital cornerstone in the study of business. Ensuring businesses have the right people in the right roles at the right time is a critical part of business strategy and success. Next, we will look at more specific aspects of recruitment such as application forms, CVs, and interviews.