Internal Factors
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
I. Introduction to Recruitment and Selection:
Strategic Human Capital Management Introduction
• Human resources are valuable assets
• Psychological contract exists in every
employee
• Fulfillment encourages positive outcomes
• Understanding the psychological contract
can uncover ways to realign HR policies to
effectively meet employees' expectations
• Human resource practices can significantly
impact the employment relationship
The HR Process
1. Human Resource Planning
2. Recruitment and Selection
3. Orientation and Placement
4. Training and Development
5. Organizational Development
6. Performance Management
7. Employee Motivation
8. Labor Relations
9. Compensation Administration
10. Occupational Health and Safety
11. Employee Separation
Roles of Recruitment and Selection to Organizational
Success
• Recruitment and selection are important
operations in human resource management,
designed to make the best use of employee
strength to meet the strategic goals and objectives
of the employers and of the organization.
• Good people confer a performance
advantage and there is really nothing that will
make more of an impact than hiring the very best
talent you can find and afford.
• When you are running a business, your
success largely depends on having a team of
employees who know how to get the job done.
• Selection reduces the number of applicants to a
number that is more manageable and involves
screening out those that are unsuitable for the job.
Factors Affecting Recruitment and Selection
1. Internal Factors
2. External Factors
1. Size of Organization
The most significant issues moving the recruitment
process are to expand the size of the organization,
recruitment planning is compulsory for hiring more
resources, which will be handling the future operations.
The most significant issues moving the recruitment
process are to expand the size of the organization,
recruitment planning is compulsory for hiring more
resources, which will be handling the future operations.
2. Recruiting Policy
Signing from internal or external bases of group is
also a factor in recruitment policy of an organization,
which touches the recruitment process. It states the
purposes of the recruitment and offers a framework for the
application of recruitment programs.
3. Image of Organization
Organizations having a decent positive image in the
market can effortlessly entice competent resources.
Keeping up good public relations, given that public
services, etc., certainly help an organization in improving
its standing in the market, and thereby appeal to the best
likely resources.
4. Image of Job
Just like the image of the institute, the image of a job
plays a precarious role in employment. Jobs having a
positive brand in terms of better payment, advancements,
credit, good work environment with career growth
opportunities are considered to be the characteristics to
entice qualified candidates.
External Factors
1. Demographic Factors
Factors are related to the characteristics of potential
employees such as their age, religion, educational
qualifications, gender, occupation, economic status, and
place of location.
2. Labor market exercises control on the demand
and supply of labor.
For example, if the supply of people having specific
skills and abilities is less than the demand, then the hiring
will require more efforts. On the other hand, if the demand
is less than the supply, then hiring will be relatively more
manageable.
3. Unemployment rate
If the unemployment rate is high in a specific area,
hiring of human resources will be simple and manageable,
as there will be an increase in the number of applicants.
For various job positions in all types of organizations,
large number of applications are received. In contrast, if
the unemployment rate is low, then recruiting tends to be
difficult due to lesser number of resources.
4. Labor laws reflect the social and political
environment of the market, which are created by
the central and the state governments.
These laws dictate the compensation, working
environment, safety and health regulations, and the job
duties of the workforce, for different types of
employments.
As the governments undergo transformations, there
are transformations that come about in the labor laws.
 5. Legal considerations
Job reservations for different race, color, gender and
oher considerations the best examples of legal
considerations. These considerations, passed by
government, will have a positive or negative impact on
the recruitment policies of the organizations.
6. Competitors
When organizations in the same industry are
competing for the best qualified resources, there is a need
to analyze the competition and make provision of the
resources packages that are finest in terms of the industry
standards.
7. Equal Opportunity
When recruitment and selection of the employees take
place, then it is vital to take into consideration, equal
employment opportunities for the individuals.
Equal opportunity results when all the applicants are
treated on an equal basis and consistently at every stage
of recruitment.
There should not be any discrimination against
anybody on the basis of factors, such as, caste, creed, race,
religion, ethnicity, gender and socio-economic
background. “Fairness and justness is of principal
significance in the recruitment and the selection
processes” (Klug, 2017).
Principles of Recruitment and Selection
1. A process with a number of key stages, all of
which work in cooperation to improve one's
chances of finding the best candidates available
for any advertised position.
2. It is worth giving indications that in terms of
leading, guiding and managing employees, if one
is not recruiting the best people available, then it
is always going to be challenging to manage them
on daily basis.
3. When seeking to fill any job vacancy, one should
always consider the internal candidates that could
be encouraged to the available post and then
recruit externally for the junior position.
4. Too often senior managers pay less attention to
the recruitment process and only become actively
involved when a senior post is being filled, or at
the end of the process for the final interview.
5. It is often assumed that interviewing is something
that any experienced manager can carry out and
proper training should be acquired.
6. There are many legal issues that are associated
with the recruitment process and it is necessary
for all the individuals to familiarize oneself with
the relevant legislation.
Benefits of a Recruitment and Selection Process
1. Save time: an effective hiring process can save
you time.
2. Save money: using a streamlined recruiting and
selection process also saves you money.
3. Legal issues: an established recruiting and
selection process can help to ensure the hiring
process is both fair and transparent.
4. Hire the right worker: an efficient recruitment
and selection process ensures you will hire the
right worker more often than not.
5. Save time on training: the right type of hiring
and selection process also helps the company
save time on training.
II. Workforce Planning
Nature of Workforce Planning
Human resource planning is both a process and a
collection of plans. It is how organizations measure the
future supply and demand of human resources. In
addition, an effective human resource plan also provides
systems and strategies to eliminate any gap between
supply and demand. Thus, HR planning establishes the
numbers and types of employees to be recruited into the
organizations.
Human resource planning also contains linking a
firm’s human resource management practices to its
strategic business needs, which have been identified by
the strategic planning process. HR planning may be done
on both short-term and long-term basis. Its objective is to
ensure that manpower will be available with the
appropriate characteristics and skills when the
organization needs them.
It is a process by which an organization ensures
that it has the right number and kind of human resources,
in the right places at the right time, doing the things for
which they are economically useful. It is a method for
determining future human capital requirements and
developing action plans to meet them. It is defined as a
strategy for the requisition, utilization, improvement and
retention of an enterprise’s human resource and it
incorporates the subject concerned with the developing
range of manpower policies, including those for
recruitment, development, and retention.
Importance of Workforce Planning
1. HR planning must be conducted for more
effective and efficient use of human resources.
2. Encouragement of proactive rather than reactive
behavior.
3. Aids in scheduling recruitment and selecting
effectively by providing information that
determine how many people are needed and the
kinds of human resources need for job openings.
4. It can identify the mix of skills it will need in the
future.
5. More satisfied and better developed employees
have better chances of developing and utilizing
their talents.
6. Explicit communication of company goals.
7. Stimulation of critical thinking and ongoing
examination of assumptions.
8. Encouragement of line manager’s participation.
9. Identification of human resource constraints and
opportunities.

Organizational Life Cycle
The organizational life cycle is referred to as a
model that has linked business organizations with living
organisms and proposed that it passes through predictable
sequences of various development and growth stages.
It is believed that like human beings,
organizations also are born, they grow and mature with
time and there comes a stage when they start declining
and like any other human being die. Some of the
organizations have a long shelf life, whereas others are
unable to cope with the demands and have a short life.
Still, it is a fact that every life follows a pattern, and this
seems predictable for every organization.
It is up to the management to realize and
understand all the phases of the organizational life cycle
so that they can understand the priorities of that stage and
make decisions accordingly that will work best for that
period.
Categories/Phases of Human Resource Planning
1. Determine organizational growth or
retrenchment objectives
Growth or retrenchment objective drive the human
resource plan. If the company grows rapidly with little
retrenchment, employment will expand. Growth
objectives are a key part in an organization’s overall
strategic plan. Almost all strategic plans deal with the size
the company wishes to be in the future. Growth or
retrenchment objectives may be expressed in terms of
sales, market share, asset size, return on investment,
development of new products and services or selling off
product lines and development of new markets or
abandonment of markets.
2. Determine human resource objectives
A large firm with a well-developed human
resource plan would have many human resource
objectives spelled out at the corporate level and each
division would have a list of its own sub-objectives.
3. Examine job design and structure
Companies should not take the configuration of job
that exist at a particular point in time as unchangeable.
There are factors to consider in analyzing job design and
structure such as new technological change, aspiration,
and skills level of employees (motivation, work ethic,
expectations, and job skills) and shortage of trained
employees.
4. Estimate future skill requirement by
occupation or job category
Occupational skills change over time. It is important
at this stage that organization should have a complete
listing of all occupational categories in the organization
with explanatory job descriptions that specify the duties,
skills and qualifications required for each job. Estimation
of how these skills will change need to be built into the
human resource plan.
5. Rightsizing
If a surplus is predicted for an occupational category,
the human resource plan needs to consider if these
individuals will be discharged, temporary laid off,
transferred, or provided severance pay or given early
retirement.
If a shortage is predicted, the organization must hire
from the outside labor market if it expects to fill the
resulting job vacancies.
Employee Shortage
When there is an employee shortage, it means that
companies are having trouble finding qualified applicants
for open positions. There are not enough individuals to fill
the positions they are looking for, and the few that are
available are difficult to come by. Labor or employee
shortages, on the other hand, can be more problematic.
Some positions are more difficult to fill than others, and
some industries have a harder problem attracting and
retaining personnel than others.
 The employee shortage risk relates to the shortage
of human resources resulting from increased absenteeism,
aging workforce, disability management practices,
inconsistent assignment of staffing levels and inability to
recruit and retain competent resources. This risk can lead
to negative outcomes such as, staff burnout, decreased
staff morale, increased workplace injuries, inadequate
quality of service, reputation loss, financial loss due to
increased overtime/utilization of consultants, longer
patient/client wait time and potential patient/client harm.
III. Recruitment
Nature of Recruitment
The recruitment process is a significant part of
human resource management (HRM). It is not done
without proper strategic planning. Recruitment is defined
as a process that supports the organization with a pool of
qualified job candidates from which to choose. Before
companies recruit, they must implement proper staffing
plans and forecasting to determine how many people they
will need. The basis of the forecast will be the annual
budget of the organization and the short- to long-term
plans of the organization—for example, the possibility of
expansion.

Forecasting is centered on both internal and external

factors.

Internal factors include the following:

a) Budget constraints
b) Expected or trend of employee separations
c) Production levels
d) Sales increases or decreases
e) Global expansion plans

External factors might include the following:

Employee Surplus a) Changes in technology

b) Changes in laws
Employee surplus is the situation when the supply c) Unemployment rates
of required human resources is greater than the demand d) Shifts in population
for required human resources by an organization. In other e) Shifts in urban, suburban, and rural areas
words, skills surplus takes place when the supply of f) Competition
required human resources surpasses the demand of
required human resources in an organization. Once the forecasting data are collected and analyzed,
the HR professional can see where gaps exist and then
An organization can deal with this skills surplus in the begin to recruit individuals with the right skills, education,
following ways: and backgrounds.

1. Attrition: It is the process of decreasing a skills Recruitment Strategy

surplus by naturally, letting the workforce size to
decline.
2. Job sharing: Job sharing takes place when 2 or
more employees do the duties of a single full-time
position.
3. Hiring freeze: Hiring freeze is a prohibition on
all types of external recruiting functions.
An understanding of the labor market and the
factors determining the relevant aspects of the labor
market is key to being strategic about your recruiting
processes.
Here are the aspects of developing a recruitment
strategy:

1. Refer to a staffing plan.

2. Confirm the job analysis is correct through
questionnaires.
3. Write the job description and job specifications.
4. Have a bidding system to recruit and evaluate
internal candidate qualifications for possible
promotions.
5. Determine the best recruitment strategies for the
position.
6. Implement a recruiting strategy.

The first step in the recruitment process is acceptance

of a job opening. Currently, the manager and/or the HRM
look at the job description for the job opening.
 Internal candidates are already working for the
company. If an internal candidate meets the
qualifications, this person might be persuaded to apply for
the job, and the job opening may not be published. Many
organizations have formal job posting procedures and
bidding systems in place for internal candidates.

The recruitment function of the organizations is

affected and governed by a mix of many internal and
external forces. The internal forces or factors are the
factors that can be controlled by the organization. And the
external factors are those factors which cannot be
External Factors Affecting Recruitment
monitored by the organization.
1. Supply and Demand
Internal Factors Affecting Recruitment
If the company has a demand for more professionals
1. Recruitment Policy
and there is limited supply in the market for the
professionals demanded by the company, then the
The recruitment policy of an organization indicates
company will have to depend upon internal sources by
the objectives of recruitment and provides a framework
providing them special training and development
for implementation of recruitment program. It may
programs.
involve organizational system to be developed for
implementing recruitment program and procedure by
2. Labor Market
filling up vacancies with best qualified people.
If there is surplus of manpower at the time of
Factors affecting recruitment policy
recruitment, even informal attempts at the time of
recruiting like notice boards display of the requisition or
✓ Organizational objectives
announcement in the meeting etc. will attract more than
✓ Personnel policies of the organization and its
enough applicants.
competitors.
✓ Government policies on reservations.
✓ Preferred sources of recruitment. 3. Image/Goodwill
✓ Need of the organization.
✓ Recruitment costs and financial implications. Image of the employer can work as a possible
constraint for recruitment. An organization with positive
image and support as an employer finds it easier to attract
2. Human Resource Planning
and retain employees than an organization with negative
image. Image of a company is based on what organization
Effective human resource planning supports in
does and affected by industry.
determining the gaps present in the existing manpower of
the organization. It also helps in determining the number
of employees to be recruited and what qualification they 4. Political-Social-legal Environment
must possess.
This limits management freedom to select those
individuals who it believes would be the best performers.
3. Size of the Firm
If the candidate cannot meet criteria stipulated by the
union but union regulations can restrict recruitment
The size of the firm is an important element in
sources.
recruitment process. If the organization is planning to
increase its operations and grow its business, it will think
5. Unemployment Rate
of hiring more personnel, which will handle its operations.
When the company is not creating new jobs, there is
4. Cost
often oversupply of qualified labor which in turn leads to
unemployment.
Recruitment incur cost to the employer; therefore,
businesses try to employ that source of recruitment which
will bear a lower cost of recruitment to the organization 6. Competitors
for each candidate.
To face the competition, many a times the
organizations must change their recruitment policies
5. Growth and Expansion
according to the policies being followed by the
competitors.
Organization will employ or think of employing
more personnel if it is expanding its operations.
Sources of recruitment d) Temporary help Services

1. Internal Sources of Recruitment Temporary employees are particularly valuable in

Whenever any vacancy arises, someone from within
the organization is upgraded, transferred, promoted, or
even demoted. Retrenched employees, retired employees,
dependents deceased employees may also constitute the
internal sources. The major internal sources of
recruitment are as under.
a) Promotion and Transfer
A transfer is a lateral change within the same
grade, from one job to another. Promotion, on the other
hand, requires movement of employees from a lower-
level position to a higher-level position accompanied by
(usually) changes in authority, duties, responsibilities,
status, and remuneration.
b) Job posting
meeting short term fluctuations in personnel needs.
e) Campus Recruitment
Some recruiters visit education institutions with a
view to pick up job aspirants having requisite technical or
professional skills. If campus recruiting is used, steps
should be taken by the Human Resource Department to
ensure that the recruiters are knowledgeable about the
jobs that are to be filled and can employ effective
interviewing skills.
f) Professional Organization
It is also common practice to provide placement
facilities at regional and national meetings where
individuals looking for employment and companies
looking for employees can find each other.

In job posting, the organization advertises job

openings on bulletin boards, electronic media, and
similar, outlets.

c) Employee referrals

Employee referral means using personal contacts

to find job opportunities. It is a recommendation from a
present employee regarding a job applicant. The logic
behind employee referral is that “it takes one to know
one”.

2. External Sources of Recruitment

a) Advertisements

When an organization desires to communicate to

the public that it has a vacancy, advertisement is one of
the most popular methods used. However, the media of
Proactive recruitment is the anticipative process
advertisement preferred is often determined by the type of
of attempting to locate and encourage potential applicants
job. Internet ads, Newspaper ads, Tv and radio ads
to apply for future job openings.
b) Employment agencies
Cost of Poor Recruitment Decisions
There are three types of employment agencies –
There are many impacts of employee turnover,
public employment agencies- public agencies tend to
one being the time and financial cost of a recruitment.
attract and list individuals who are unskilled or have had
High costs are one of the more considered negatives of
minimum training this, of course, does not reflect on the
high turnover. The opportunity cost of work not being
competence of the agency; private employment
done, this includes- delayed projects, reduced activity and
agencies- private agencies are believed to offer positions
customers being neglected. This can decrease efficiency
to applicants of a higher caliber. Private agencies also
and productivity.
provide a more complete line of services; and
management consulting firms- they specialize in
middle-level and top-level executive placements. In How to handle recruitment effectively?
addition to the level at which they recruit, the features that
distinguish executive search agencies from most private ✓ Manage your company’s image.
employment agencies are their fees, their nationwide ✓ Employer branding – the perception of the public
contacts, and the thoroughness of their investigations. with the way you treat employees
✓ Treat candidates as VIP’s by keeping them
c) Unsolicited Applicants / Walk – ins informed of their status, scheduling interview at a
time convenient to them, etc.
✓ Establish clear-cut recruiting responsibilities.
Companies generally receive unsolicited
✓ Strengthen communication between managers
applications from job applicants at various points of time.
and internal recruiting staff.
✓ Involve your entire staff in the search.
Recruitment Tips from Professionals
• Understand the job
• Hire for today’s need and tomorrow’s vision.
• Be legal
• Build a standardized hiring process and follow it.
• Hiring top talent means more profit.
• A bad hire is worse than you think.
• Interviewing doesn’t work all the time.
• Match people to jobs.
• Create a strong employer brand.
• Consider outsourcing of the recruitment process.
• Look inside.
• Practice functional rotations.
• Train, coach, and educate recruiters.
• Recognize your limits.
• Respect your clients.
• BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU DO.
IV. Systematic Approach to Recruitment
Job Analysis
Job analysis sets a job under the microscope to
reveal key details about it. Specifically, it recognizes the
tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a specific job.
A task is a basic element of a work that is a
logical and essential step in performing a job duty.
A duty consists of one or more tasks that
comprise a significant activity performed in a job.
A responsibility is one or several duties that
identify and explain the major purpose or reason for the
job’s existence.
Who Performs Job Analysis?
Job analysis is performed either by a member of
the Human Resource department, a job analyst or by the
job incumbent. In some businesses a manager may
perform the job analysis.
Uses of Job Analysis
1. Organizational structure and design
By clarifying job requirements and interrelationships
among jobs, obligations at all stages can be specified,
promoting efficiency, and minimizing overlap or
duplication of duties.
2. Human resource planning
Job analysis data is incorporated into a human
resource information system.
3. Work simplification
Work simplification involves dividing the job into
small parts, i.e., different product lines or process
operations, improving production or job performance.
4. Setting up of standards.
Standard means minimum standard qualities, results,
performance, or incentives regarding a particular job. Job
analysis provides information about the job, and each
standard can be established using this information.
5. Support for personnel activities
Job analysis supports various worker and employees’
activities like recruitment, selection, placement, training
and development, wage administration, performance
appraisal, etc.
6. Job description
Job description differentiates one job from another by
presenting distinctive characteristics of each job.
7. Job specification
The job specification statement identifies the
knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed to perform
that task effectively.
8. Job classification system
Without job analysis report, it is difficult to determine
the relationships among jobs in an organization reliably.
9. Job evaluation and compensation
Valuable in helping executives identify the kinds of
personnel they should recruit, select, develop, and provide
guidance for decisions about training and career
development, performance appraisal, and compensation
administration.
Components of Job Analysis
1. Element - the smallest functional unit into which
any work activity can be subdivided.
2. Task - an identifiable unit of work activity is
produced by applying a Composite of methods,
procedures, and techniques.
3. Duty - an individual makes several distinct tasks
to complete a work activity for which he or she is
responsible.
4. Position - the mixture of all the responsibilities
required of one person performed a job.
5. Job - a group of positions that are the same or
necessary in their job components tasks and
others to be covered by the same job analysis.
6. Occupation - jobs are combined across
companies based upon the skills, exhaustion, and
responsibilities required by the jobs.
7. Job Family - a category in which similar cocoons
are grouped.
Job Analysis Methods
1. Observation method
The observer examines a worker or a group of
workers doing a job. Observations alone may show little
useful information if the work in question is primarily
mental.
2. Job performance
With this method, there is exposure to actual job tasks
and the jobs’ physical, environmental, and social
demands. It is suitable for jobs that can be learned quickly.
Its main limitation is that the employee becomes
conscious when the employee’s work is observed.
3. Work sampling
Under this method, a supervisor can determine the
content and speed of a typical workday through a
statistical sampling of certain activities rather than
through continuous observation and timing of all actions.
4. Individual interview
This method can provide information about standard
and non-standard activities and physical and mental work.
Its main limitation is that workers may be suspicious of
interviewers and their motives.; interviewers may ask
ambiguous questions.
5. Structured questionnaire
The main advantage of this method is that information
on many jobs can be collected inexpensively in a brief
time. This method is usually not expensive and quicker to
administer than other methods. Its main limitation is that
it is time consuming and expensive to develop.
6. Critical incident method
The critical incident method gives an idea about the
job and its importance.
7. Diary method
In this method, the worker does the work himself, and
the idea of the skill required, the difficulty level of the job,
and the efforts required can be known easily.
Job Advertisement
A job advertisement is a statement of an open
job position.
The main purpose and objective of a job
advertisement or advertising is to inform potential job
candidates about a new opening and attract them to
apply.
It is composed in an engaging tone, and it
includes information and data not only about the job
position, but also about your company and the benefits
you can offer to talents. As a result, you will save time
and money!
Different Recruitment Platforms
A recruitment platform is an online software that
allows companies, organizations, and recruiters to source
qualified job candidates and control the recruitment
process for open positions within their company.
Recruitment platforms often incorporate various or
different recruitment tools such as ATS, CRM, CMS, and
other software.
The company's success is often based on finding
the right candidate to fill roles in your organization. Using
an online recruitment platform in combination with
recruitment software can help the organization to achieve
your hiring goals and position yourself as an attractive
destination for highly qualified job candidates.
Recruiting Software
Recruiting software is a software tool that may
assist an employer find future or potential employees or
talents. It can also be called applicant tracking software,
but the two are not the same thing exactly.
This type of software can handle all the low-level
administrative tasks like screening resumes, creating a
shortlist, and even interviewing applicants for all kinds
and sizes of businesses and enterprises.
Advantages of Recruiting Platforms/Software
1. It speeds up the screening process.
2. It improves productivity.
3. It expands your database.
4. It creates a pleasant candidate experience.
5. There is reduced unconscious bias.
6. There is better communication.
7. Recruiting becomes a tactical talent advisor role.
Disadvantages of Recruiting Platforms/Software\
1. Possible technical difficulties.
2. It may filter out good candidates.
3. It may intensify instinctive biases.
Sample use of Recruiting Platform/Software
Recruiting software and platforms can bring on
different tasks, depending on what your recruitment team
needs. It can do the following functions for you:
1. Sourcing
Sourcing pertains to promoting and mass-sharing job
vacancies through career websites, talent communities,
job postings, and social media.
2. Applicant tracking
Recruitment software can hold a vast amount of data
and allows users to filter these data for quick searches.
This filtering method makes the hiring procedure a
speedier process altogether. This kind of software may
also alert the candidates of any progress on their
application process. It may notify applicants of scheduled
interviews or the results of their assessments and tests.
 3. Onboarding

Onboarding makes the transitions for new hires a

smoother process and makes the hiring manager’s job a
smoother process altogether.

4. Recruiting analytics

Recruitment supervisors can analyze statistics like

time-to-hire, applicant-to-interview ratios, and the source
of hires. Analyzing this data can allow teams to pinpoint
what areas are lacking or need improvement for them to
improve upon.

5. Pre-hire assessment and background checking

Background checks are also mandatory whenever

recruiting new hires. These kinds of recruitment software
are even able to run reference tests and background
checks on each applicant.