RECRUITMENT

RECRUITMENT

Recruitment is the process of identifying and encouraging potential applicants in filling the existing or future job vacancy in an organisation. In the recruitment process, effort is put into informing applicants about the qualification requirements in performing a job, as well as job opportunities that are offered by an organisation to its workers.

Recruitment that will be made, whether internally or externally, depends on the supply of existing personnel, the organisation’s human resource policy and important matters involved in a particular job.

1. Internal Recruitment

Internal candidate who are most qualified have to be identified so that no issues will arise regarding regulations and laws, and at the same time is able to fulfil the organisation’s needs and employees aspirations.

The effectiveness of internal sources is able to be further strengthened by giving the opportunity to employees who feel that they are qualified to apply for the position offered. Internal candidates who are suitable can be detected through the human resource information system and job posting and bidding.

(a) Human Resource Information System (HRIS)

Information technology enables an organisation to create a database that contains records and qualifications of each of its employees. A manager can obtain information about candidates and identify those who have potential to fill the position offered.

The existing data can also be used to forecast employees’ career path and predict when and where the opportunity for promotion will be announced.

However, the data has to be updated and there has to be a systematic method to update the data.

(b) Job Vacancy Advertisement and Vacancy

Job advertisement and vacancy mean that the management announces the existence of a job vacancy while at the same time retains the name list of employees who are trying for a better position. The announcement can be made via the bulletin board, the organisation’s bulletin, special handouts, announcement through public address, and other appropriate methods.

Sometimes announcements can also be made through computer systems such as e-mails.

Job vacancy advertisement methods can also be seen as beneficial when employees are confident regarding the fairness of the system. It is more effective when these methods are seen as part of the career development programme for employees.

Among the advantages of recruiting from within the organisation, are:

(i) Most organisations give priorities to existing employees to fill in the vacant positions which are higher than their current positions. The offer to fill in a certain position or job is considered as promotion.

Through this, organisations can get back the returns from recruitment, selection, training and development that have been initiated to in their employees.

(ii) A promotion in an organisation can act as a reward for an employee’s performance. The result is to increase in employee morale and motivation.

(iii) By recruiting the existing employees in an organisation, costs related to orientation and training can be reduced. This is because employees are already familiar to the organisation’s working environment.

2. External Recruitment

There are many sources and places where an organisation can recruit employees from the outside. However, the source of recruiting professional and skilful employees such as accountants are not the same as the source of recruiting skilled employees such as a flour mixer operator in a bread factory.

Among the sources of external recruitment are:

(a) Advertising

Advertising is the most popular source of attracting applicants. The advertising mediums that are often used by organisations are newspapers, radio, posters, billboards, television e-mails and business journals. The types of advertisements used by the organisation usually depend on the types of job vacancies that need to be filled, and the type of labor market. It also depends on the cost that organisation is willing to bear.

(b) Internal Application

Organisations often receive applications from internal candidates without having to advertise. However, the percentage of internal applicants is low

Even though the percentage is low, organisations cannot ignore self applicants as they might prove to be good employees at a later date.

(c) Proposed by staff

Existing staff usually can suggest candidates who are really qualified.

Organisations can encourage them to continue the effort of searching for the right candidate by giving bonuses for each successful employment. The risk of this sort of employment is nepotism, which is the tendency to propose their own family member.

(d) Executive Search Firms

This source assists employers in searching for a suitable employee to fill the job offered. The fee rate is normally 30% - 40% of the annual salary of the position that needs to be filled. For senior executive positions, payment is usually made by the organisation hiring the particular executive search firms.

(e) Higher Learning Institutions (Public and Private)

Through institutions, the potential candidates are young, and formerly

trained but they are having less experience.

(f) Professional Organisations

Usually, professional organisations can help its members get jobs as this is one of the benefits of joining such organisation.

(g) Public Employment Agencies

Public employment agencies such as Labor Department can help job applicants to look for jobs which are suited to their qualifications.

(h) Private Employment Agencies

Normally, private employment agencies will charge a certain, fixed rate to help applicants look for jobs. Fee may be paid by the job seeker or potential employer.

) Agencies Providing Temporary Will

Normally, these types of agencies provide temporary workers to employers who require temporary workers, such as letter dispatcher.

(j) Employee Leasing

Employee leasing is an employee who has been retrenched or dismissed by an organisation, then hired by another company that offers employee leasing services to those interested companies.

(k) Internet Recruitment

The internet is a source of recruitment that is increasingly popular.

Applicants can surf a certain website to register online.

(l) Employees Union

Employees union is a good source to obtain employees for certain positionsnin the supporting level.

External recruitment has a few advantages. Among them are:

(a) When an employee is promoted or resigns from an organisation, his or her position must be filled. If his or her successor is chosen from within the organisation, then the successor’s position must also be filled. Successions must be ongoing if an organisation does not plan to reduce its number of employees.

(b) External recruitment is also done for the purpose of injecting new influence into an organisation so that the existing work culture can be stimulated.

However, in implementing external recruitment process, the position of the labour market, be it tight or loose, and a candidate’s preparedness to transfer must be considered. The labour market is an area where candidates can be recruited. To attract the interest of applicants, the organisation must identify the types of jobs and its suitability to the applicants.