Recruitment is one of the most important processes associated with your Human Resources department, and it’s designed to optimize employee strengths for the company, so strategic goals and objectives can be accomplished. Recruitment actually consists of several sub-processes, these being sourcing, screening, short-listing, and eventually choosing the right candidates to fill any vacant positions which might exist in the company.
In its broadest context, recruitment will require various methods to be employed, a full scope of planning processes, interviews with candidates, a number of factors which might affect recruitment, the selection process, and then finally making an offer to a qualified candidate. Given the fact that a company’s most valuable assets are its employees, it stands to reason that recruitment can be one of the most crucial processes that any company must embark upon.
How Recruitment is Done
Recruitment can be carried out either internally, or the entire process can be outsourced to a third party which specializes in this kind of activity. Regardless of who actually carries out the recruitment, some kind of time frame should be associated with the recruiting procedure, so that you have a specific date in mind for hiring a qualified candidate. If you don’t do this, the recruitment process can go on indefinitely, without ever arriving at a short list of candidates.
Importance of Recruitment
In any organization which has a strong Human Resources team and good processes in place, recruitment is one of the important procedures which is typically handled methodically and efficiently. In such companies, the organization will generally end up hiring employees who are more productive and more satisfied with their jobs, and these companies will generally have a lower rate of turnover.
A beneficial workplace environment gets built up, with strong interpersonal relationships between employees, and with appropriate supervisor/employee relationships as well. This in turn will very often result in organizational growth and an increase in productivity that leads to greater overall success in the company.
When recruiting is done correctly, it will help to determine all current and future job requirements, and it will meet an organization’s legal obligations with regards to maintaining a solid workforce. Recruitment helps to identify strong job applicants and it increases the success rate of choosing the right candidates from among those applicants.
It can also be self-examining, from the standpoint of evaluating its own effectiveness in using recruitment techniques that result in finding qualified candidates. Part of the recruitment process involves attracting just the right candidates and encouraging them to apply for positions that are currently available in the organization. There are of course many different ways to go about recruiting qualified candidates for positions within your organization. However, the most successful recruitment programs are those which tend to incorporate some or all of five basic strategies that are important for success.
Recruitment Planning
The first of these steps is recruitment planning, and this step involves a thorough analysis of which positions are open and then describes each of these positions such that candidates can understand what’s required of them, and whether or not they’re a good fit for the position. This will include writing up job specifications, experience levels required, and basic qualifications for the job. By creating a structured recruitment plan, you will be much more likely to attract qualified candidates, so that you will have a good pool of prospects to select from.
Develop your Strategy
This is the second step of a solid recruitment process, and it calls for preparing a strategy so that you can attract the right candidates. After you’ve completed the write-up of job descriptions and specifications, you’ll need to consider the kinds of recruitment processes you’re going to use, the geographical areas you intend to draw from, and what recruitment sources you’re going to use. In order to accomplish all this, you’ll have to establish a team that will be responsible for collecting all available data and analyzing it, and then formalizing which recruitment strategies will be used.
Candidate Search
In this step of the process, all resources will be sourced, depending on job requirements that have been established. Having already arrived at your recruitment strategy, you are now prepared to search for candidates who are capable of fulfilling any open positions in your company. Candidate search can begin immediately after an opening has been identified in the company, and it has been positively determined that this opening will be filled, either internally or from a pool of external candidates. It then becomes necessary to identify the media which will be used to communicate information about the vacancies which exist in your company, so that the best candidates can receive this information, and hopefully apply at your organization.
Screening and Shortlisting
The next important step of the process consists of screening and short-listing candidates. Screening involves filtering out candidates who are unqualified for the position for whatever reason. This process will be comprised of reviewing resumes and cover letters, conducting telephone interviews or video interviews to get a feel for candidates, and then evaluating all the data contained obtained during these two processes, so as to identify the best candidates. Once the screening process has been completed, it should be possible to create a short list of qualified candidates, each of whom can be brought in for a second interview, so that your organization can get a better feel for who they are and what they’re capable of.
Control and Evaluation
The last phase of a good recruitment process is to assess the effectiveness and validity of your recruitment process and all the methods which were used in identifying candidates. This is necessary because the cost of recruitment can be extraordinary, so every aspect of the procedure should be thoroughly evaluated, so it can be streamlined and made cost-effective.
As an example, some of the costs associated with recruitment are recruiter salaries, advertisements, administrative expenses, recruitment overheads, overtime costs while the position remains unfilled, and time spent by management in preparing job descriptions and conducting interviews. At the same time that the overall recruitment process is being reviewed for its validity, it should also be evaluated in terms of how cost-effective it is, so that the next recruitment task can be conducted more efficiently.