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UNSW Business School/ Management

Topic 4: Recruitment

Reference: Stone, R. J. (2017).

Human Resource Management (9th edition).
Chapter 6.

What is recruitment?

• Narrower view:
– “The process of identifying, pre-screening and attracting a pool
of qualified candidates.” (Stone, 2017, p.260).
– “Recruitment begins with identifying HR requirements and ends
with the processing of applications” (Stone, 2017, p. 229).

• Broader view:
– “The actions organizations take to generate applicant pools,
maintain viable applicants, and encourage desired candidates to
join those organizations.” (Dineen & Soltis, 2010, p.43).
– This view sees the recruitment process as continuing until after
suitable applicants have accepted/declined the job.

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Goals of Recruitment

• Attracting an adequate number of applicants.

– Attracting too many can be costly for the selection process
– Attracting too few leads to a lack of choice

• Attracting the right type of candidates.

– Don’t want to attract candidates who are clearly not suited.
– But also don’t want to use the recruitment process as a selection
tool.

• Communicating the organisation to the candidate

– Creating a desire in the applicant to work at the organisation, but
also providing them with a realistic impression of what it’s like.

Three Stages of Recruitment Process

(Dineen & Soltis, 2010)

• Generate viable candidates

– This stage begins when the organisation decides to recruit
– Need to decide on targeting strategies and messaging strategies.

• Maintain the status of viable candidates

– This stage begins when the job seeker decides to apply for the job.
– Need to manage perceptions of the screening process and
interactions with organisational agents.

• Achieve closure
– This stage begins when the organisation decides to make a job offer
– Need to persuade the job applicant to accept.

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Generating Viable Candidates

• The aim is to build relationships with potential applicants
and to generate a pool of high-quality and diverse
applicants.

• Two types of strategies:

– Targeting strategies: Who to target.
– Messaging strategies: Where and how to target them.

• Targeting strategies:
– Internal vs external candidates
– Nontraditional candidates and disadvantaged groups
– Passive vs active job candidates
– Graduates vs experienced candidates
– International hires

Internal vs External Candidates

Internal
 Greater knowledge about candidate and candidate familiar with
organisation.
 Improves employee morale.
 Capitalises on previous training and development
 Organisation only needs to hire entry-level candidates
 Employees may be promoted beyond their level of competence
 Infighting for promotions
 Inbreeding may stifle creativity
 Places demands on high-level training and development programs.

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Internal vs External Candidates (Cont.)

• External
 Access to a larger pool of applicants
 New insights skills and know-how.
 Outside employees are not members of cliques
 Can involve fees to outside recruiters
 Takes longer for new employees to adjust
 May lead to resentment among existing employees

Discrimination, Equal Employment

Opportunity (EEO) and Recruitment
• Discrimination: Practices that unfairly disadvantage some
individuals or groups over others. It is illegal to discriminate
based on characteristics such as sex, race, age, disability,
religious views, sexuality, marital status , carer’s
responsibilities and so on.

• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO): Ensuring equal

opportunity for all employees by removing unlawful
discrimination and through programs that assist
disadvantaged groups.
– women
– Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders
– members of racial, ethnic, and ethno-religious minority groups
– people with a disability

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Disadvantaged Groups

• Women
– Women have been among the most disadvantaged groups in the
workforce, especially in higher status positions
– Factors include incorrect stereotypical thinking, glass ceilings, glass
walls

• Disabled
– Unemployment rates twice those of general population.
– But studies suggest employees with disabilities are more
dependable, loyal and are absent less often.

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Disadvantaged Groups (Cont.)

• Older workers
– Studies suggest older workers are perceived to be more costly, sick
more often, resistant to change, and low in adaptability.
– In reality, they are often more reliable and patient, switch jobs less
often, and are better at handling complex issues than younger
workers.
– Due to the aging population, future research needs to be directed at
how to more effectively recruit older workers.

• Other groups (See Stone et al Textbook)

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Other Targeting Issues

• Passive versus active candidates
– Passive job candidates are those who are not actively seeking job
change but would consider it.
– Provides a way for firms to enter new product markets more effectively
– Can lead to backlash on the part of ‘poached’ firm

• Graduates versus experienced hires

– Experienced hires tend to have more skills, but graduates are more
open-minded and willing to learn.

• International hires
– Provides access to skills that may not be available locally.
– Disadvantages include higher costs, administration, trade union
opposition, language and cultural barriers

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Recruitment Methods

• Unsolicited applications
• Employee referrals
• Advertising
• Employment agencies
• Management recruitment consultants
• Executive search firms
• University recruitment
• Internet recruitment

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Unsolicited Applicants

• Individuals who apply for a job without prompting from

the organisation.

• Can be “walk-ins” or “write-ins”.

• Benefits include the fact that the applicant has already

done some research on the company and decided that
there is a good fit, and the low cost involved.

• But difficult to use as the sole method of recruitment.

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Employee Referrals

• Recruiting by seeking referrals from current employees (e.g., via emails

and bulletin boards).

• Can be accompanied with rewards for employees who make successful

recommendations.

• Draws on the knowledge of the employee about both the vacancy and the
person being referred.

• Empirical evidence shows that this method yields candidates that have
better credentials, more likely to be hired, and perform at a higher level
than non-referred candidates (e.g., Breaugh, 2013).

• But, if used extensively, can lead to the development of cliques; can also
become discriminatory by promoting homogeneity of nationality, gender,
age, etc.

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Advertising

• Specific media for advertising include newspapers,

magazines, direct mail, billboards, radio & television,
directories, etc.

• The most commonly used are newspaper ads, though

each method has its own advantages and disadvantages
(see Stone, 2017, p.238-239).

• The target audience is a key consideration in the choice

of media.

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Developing Recruitment Ads: The AIDA

Technique
• Attention (A):
– Get the person’s attention by using an eye-catching title or headline

• Interest (I):
– Build the person’s interest by providing them with information needed to
evaluate the job and its requirements. Include job description, KSAOs.

• Desire (D):
– Create the desire to work there by highlighting how the job will meet
their needs (e.g., status, job security, social benefits, etc.)

• Action (A):
– Prompt the person’s action by telling them what to do to apply for the
job.

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Content Issues
(See Dineen & Soltis, 2010)

• Message orientation
– Should the message ‘sell’ the company or provide realistic
information that allows the candidate to assess fit?
– Realistic Job Previews are associated with small increases in
employee retention and do not seem to result in self-selecting
out.

• Diversity advertising
– How should one communicate that one values diversity?
– Some evidence that ads that contain minority representatives
are more appealing to minorities.
– Focus should be on fair treatment rather than preferential
treatment.

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University Recruitment

• University recruiting is one of the most frequently used

methods for filling entry-level professional and
managerial vacancies.

• Procedures include:
– On-campus interviews
– University internship programs
– Job fairs

• A downside is the large amount of time and costs

involved, and the high labour turnover.

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Internet Recruiting

• Most large organisations use some form of internet recruitment.

• Specific applications include:

– Company websites
– Job boards
– Social networking sites

• Benefits include avoiding time delays, space limitations and costs

of print advertising, and reaching a broad audience.

• Limitations include higher quantity but not necessarily higher

quality applicants, and disadvantages for those without access to
internet (with possible EEO consequences).

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Employment Agencies

• Privately owned recruitment consultancies.

• Recruit for lower level positions such as clerical, secretarial,

sales and technical staff; typically specialise in particular
areas.

• The Recruitment and Consulting Services Association acts

as a governing body, but membership is not compulsory.

• Fees typically range between 2%-12% of gross annual

compensation.

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Management Recruitment Consultants

• Focus on advertised recruiting for professional and

managerial positions.

• Provide a more tailored service than traditional employment

agencies, such as client background study, preparing job
description, developing recruitment strategy and job ads,
candidate screening and evaluation, reference checking.

• Advantages: Saves time, provides confidentiality, capitalises

on the recruiters expertise and reputation.

• Fees range from 10%-20% of candidates remuneration.

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Executive Search Firms

• Provide head-hunting services by identifying suitable

candidates (senior managers and executives) and
approaching them directly.

• Useful when the number of potential candidates with the

required skills and experience is small, the potential
candidates are not seeking job change, and confidentiality
is very important.

• But, can be very expensive (25-40% of total remuneration),

often doesn’t result in the initially specified person being
hired, and can lead to raiding of existing clients.

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Maintaining the Status of Viable Candidates

• Once candidates have applied, the organisation must take

steps to make sure that higher-quality candidates maintain
interest.

• Organisation needs to interact with the applicant in order to

build rapport :
– Recruiter effects
– Site visits

• Perceptions of the screening process

– Fairness
– Timeliness

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Effects of the Recruiter

(See Kramar et al., 2010)

• Functional area: Recruiters are seen as less credible (and

the job is perceived as less attractive) when they are from
the HR department rather than experts at the advertised job.

• Personality: Personable recruiters are responded to more

favourable, especially when the level of job- and
organisational-information is low.

• Some of the ways in which recruiters can impact the

recruitment outcome:
– Provide timely feedback
– Avoid unprofessional behaviour (e.g., rudeness, lateness)
– Recruit in teams

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Post-offer Closure

• Post-offer closure refers to the period after an offer has

been made but before the candidate has made a
decision.

• Often overlooked but can play an important part in

whether or not the person accepts or not.

• Specific strategies include:

– Follow-up contacts
– Site visits and meetings with key people
– Negotiated changes in salary
– Exploding offers
– Competitive intelligence

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Evaluation of the Recruitment Process

• Productivity measures
– Assess the number of applicants generated by different methods

• Quality measures
– Assess performance and tenure of applicants recruited by different
methods

• Cost measures
– Assess total cost (e.g., search fees, ad costs, etc.) per candidate per
method

• Time measures
– Assess time taken to receive applications, fill positions. Etc.

• Satisfaction measures
– Assess applicant/line manager satisfaction with a particular method.

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