Recruitment Fundamentals Summary

Recruitment Fundamentals

Recruitment vs. Selection

  • Recruitment and selection are distinct processes within human resource management.

  • Recruitment: Building the pool of applicants.

  • Selection: Picking from that pool.

  • Analogy: Recruitment is like putting fish in a pond, while selection is like choosing fish from that pond.

Strategic Recruitment

  • Recruitment should align with the organization's overarching strategy.

  • examples: Google and Microsoft align their recruitment practices with their strategies as an organization.

Internal vs. External Recruitment

  • Internal Recruitment: Selecting from applicants already within the organization.

  • External Recruitment: Bringing new people into the organization from the outside.

Advantages and Disadvantages:

  • Internal Recruitment

    • Advantages:

      • Provides pathways for advancement, motivating employees.

      • Creates a career trajectory within the organization.

    • Disadvantages:

      • Lack of new ideas or innovation; can maintain the status quo.

      • Risk of "inbreeding" and stagnation.

  • External Recruitment

    • Advantages:

      • Brings new ideas and experiences from other companies.

      • Associated with increased innovation and creativity.

    • Disadvantages:

      • Can create hostility, resentment, or jealousy if internal applicants are passed over.

Best Practices in Recruitment

  • Realistic Job Preview

    • Providing positive and negative aspects of the job.

    • Employees from personal sources (knowing someone) often get a more realistic preview.

    • Realistic job previews increase retention by reducing discrepancies between expectations and reality.

  • Recruitment Sources

    • Match recruitment sources to the number of employees needed and their required KSAs (knowledge, skills, abilities).

    • Large-scale methods (TV, radio, online) for recruiting many employees with general skills (e.g., for Kohl's).

    • Targeted approach for specialized positions (e.g., CFO of Kohl's).

Equal Employment Opportunity and Recruitment

  • Ensure recruitment is nondiscriminatory.

  • Processes like converting resumes to text boxes and suppressing identifying information (names, birthdays, schools) to focus on KSAs identified through job analysis.

Evaluating Recruitment Strategy

  • Metrics to consider:

    • Productivity: Number of applicants and number selected.

    • Quality: Performance of hires and voluntary turnover rate.

    • Costs: Advertising expenditure and cost per applicant.

    • Time: Time to fill positions.

    • Soft Data: Applicant reactions (e.g., surveys on the application process).

Clicker Questions and Answers:

  1. First Question for HR Manager:

    • Question: Is there a genuine need for this job to be filled?

    • Explanation: Ensure the job is necessary and cannot be reallocated or broken down.

  2. Applicant Attraction in Web-Based Recruitment (Moto & Otondo, 2007):

    • Factor NOT important: Familiarity with an organization.

    • Important factors: Information about the job and organization, recruitment contact, organization's image (signaling theory).

  3. Survival Rate by Recruitment Source (Weller et al., 2009):

    • Personal sources have a higher survival rate than formal sources.

    • Reason: Realistic job previews and the "birds of a feather flock together" effect.

    • Employees recruited through personal sources tend to have similar characteristics to the recruiter, leading to better performance and retention.

    • Initial survival rates are similar, but divergence occurs after 6-12 months, eventually converging again as less successful employees are weeded out.