Recruiting Applicants

Chapter 5

• Understand how a firm’s recruiting practices can lead to competitive advantage

• Explain the choices involved in planning a recruitment strategy• Discuss the various recruitment methods

Chapter 5 Objectives

Model Linking HRM Practices to Competitive Advantage

Linking Recruitment to Competitive Advantage

A recruiting program has five goals:

Linking Recruitment to Competitive Advantage

Recruiting program goals:

Achieving cost efficiency: • Reducing recruitment costs

without lowering productivity can help enhance competitive advantage.

Linking Recruitment to Competitive Advantage

Recruiting program goals:

Attracting highly qualified candidates•Sufficient number of qualified candidates must be notified of available opportunities.•Actions must be taken to enhance the likelihood that the best applicants will accept their job offers

Linking Recruitment to Competitive Advantage

Linking Recruitment to Competitive Advantage

Improving job retention rates through the use of realistic job previews (RJPs)•RJPs can reduce turnover by giving applicants more realistic information about the job and the organization.•Applicants can make a more informed choice about whether or not to accept the job offer.•Reducing turnover rates can result in substantial savings.

Recruiting program goals:

Linking Recruitment to Competitive Advantage

Recruiting program goals:

Achieving legal compliance and creating a diverse workforce: •Organizations can help prevent discrimination charges by targeting recruitment efforts toward underutilized groups.•Extending recruitment practices to disadvantaged groups can create a more culturally diverse workforce.•The manner in which a company treats these candidates during the recruitment process is vital.

Recruitment Planning

Recruitment Planning

• Organizations should attempt to identify job openings well in advance of an announced resignation.

• The HRM department should plan for future openings, thus providing organizations with the time needed to plan and implement recruitment strategies.

Step 1: Identifying the Job Opening

Recruitment Planning

• Whether to use core or contingency personnel.

• If core personnel are to be used, should the firm recruit them internally or externally.

Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening

Recruitment Planning

• Core personnel– Hired in the “traditional” manner.– Considered permanent employees.– Included in the organization’s payroll.

• Contingency personnel– Employed by a supplier agency, and “loaned” to the organization.– Not included in the organization’s payroll.– Supplier pays the workers’ salaries and benefits.– Fall into three major categories: temps, outsourcing, and

independent contractors.

Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening

Recruitment Planning

• Advantages of using contingency personnel:– Flexibility to control fixed

employee costs.– Relieves a company of many

of its HRM burdens.– Cost savings.– Contingency workers who

excel at their jobs can be offered core positions.

Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening

Recruitment Planning

• Disadvantages of contingency personnel: – May need a considerable amount

of orientation and training regarding company procedures and policies.

– Might be less loyal or committed to the “host organization.”

– May receive better wages than core workers, leading to resentment among core employees.

Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening

Advantages of internal recruitment:• Enhance morale and motivation.• Qualifications of internal candidates are well known; openings can be filled more quickly.• Less expensive.• Internal candidates are more familiar with organizational policies and practices, requiring less orientation and training.

Recruitment PlanningStep 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening

Internal recruitment

Disadvantages of internal recruitment:• Rejected candidates may become resentful.• Workers promoted into supervisory positions may find it difficult managing former coworkers.

Recruitment PlanningStep 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening

Internal recruitment

Recruitment PlanningStep 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening

External Recruitment

• External recruitment is limited primarily to entry-level jobs.

• External recruitment for jobs above the entry level is usually restricted to the following situations:– An outsider is needed to expose the organization to new ideas

and innovations.– No qualified internal candidates apply.– The organization needs to increase its percentage of employees

within a particular underutilized group.

Recruitment PlanningStep 3: Identify the Target Population

• Specify worker requirements.

• Decide whether to target certain segments of the applicant population.

Recruitment PlanningStep 4: Notify the Target Population

• Limit the size of the applicant pool by attracting only the most qualified applicants.– A good way to do this is to

clearly state the job qualifications in the vacancy notification.

Recruitment PlanningStep 5: Meet with the Candidates

• Gives the firm a chance to further assess the candidates’ qualifications.

• Provides candidates an opportunity to learn more about the company and the employment opportunity

Methods of Internal Recruitment

Recruitment Method

Strengths Weaknesses

Computerized career progression systems

• Candidates can be found quickly.

• Helps identify a broad spectrum of candidates.

• Limited to only objective or factual information.

• Information of a more subjective nature is excluded.

Supervisor selection

• Very popular with supervisors.

• Supervisor is in a good position to know the capabilities of potential candidates.

• Usually very subjective.

• Some qualified employees may be overlooked.

• Susceptible to bias, leading to possible discrimination.

Computerized Progression and Supervisor Selection

Methods of Internal Recruitment

Strengths:• Enhances the probability that the firm’s most qualified

employees will be considered for the job.• Gives employees an opportunity to become more

responsible for their career development.• Enables employees to leave a “bad” work situation.

Job Posting

Methods of Internal Recruitment

Weaknesses:• Position may remain open for an extended period.• The system may prevent supervisors from hiring

individuals of their choice.• Some employees may hop from job to job without any

clear direction.• Employees whose bids are rejected may become

alienated.

Job Posting

Methods of Internal Recruitment

Strengths:• The firm’s top performers are more likely to remain with the

organization.• Such systems ensure that someone is always ready to fill a position

when it becomes open.

Weaknesses:• An employee not selected for grooming may become disenchanted

with the organization and leave.• Selected employees may become frustrated if the expected promotion

does not materialize because the position never becomes vacant.

Career Development Systems

Methods of External Recruitment

Strengths• Is effective, quite popular, and cost efficient.• Employees accurately judge the ‘‘fit’’ between

the job being filled and the individual, and refer only the highest quality applicants.

• Applicants referred by employees tend to perform better and stay longer.

Weaknesses• May serve as a barrier to equal employment

opportunity.

Employee Referrals

Methods of External RecruitmentApplicant-Initiated and Help-Wanted Ads

Methods of External RecruitmentEmployment Agencies - Public

• Most frequently provide personnel for clerical and blue-collar jobs.

• Cost is low as the agency does not charge employers a fee.

• The method is efficient as jobs can be filled fairly quickly.

• Applicants may lack motivation.

Methods of External RecruitmentEmployment Agencies - Private

• Have the resources to fill a wide variety of jobs.

• Candidates register with the agency voluntarily – thus they may be more committed.

• Agency charges a fee for its service.

• They are especially useful when many individuals are expected to apply for a job or when qualified candidates are hard to find.

Methods of External RecruitmentExecutive Search Firms

• Specialize in the recruitment of mid- and senior-level managers.

• Charge the employer a large fee for their services.

• Can be unsuccessful – only 50 to 60 percent of all executive searches result in the selection of the type of individual initially specified.

Methods of External RecruitmentCampus Recruiting

• Used to fill specialized entry-level jobs.

• Is costly and time consuming.

• Recruitment process can be rather slow.

Methods of External RecruitmentOnline Recruiting

• Is becoming quite popular.• Is much faster and reaches a

much larger audience compared to newspaper advertising.

• Can be quite expensive.• Not the best approach for

reaching external candidates.

Methods of External RecruitmentChoosing the Right Method

The Line Manager’s Role in the Recruitment Process

Communicating recruitment needs to the HRM department including needed skills/qualifications for the job and attractive and unattractive features of the job.

Interacting with applicants to keep them informed of the status, schedule interviews at their convenience, and allow them to speak to their future coworkers.

Identifying recruitment needs triggered by replacement, additional positions being added, and a newly created job being established.

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The Human Resource Department’s Role in the Recruitment Process

Implementing the recruitment process: Includes writing an ad, choosing the employment agency, conducting campus interviews, and coordinating candidates on-site visits.

Planning the recruitment process: Determine where to find the applicants and how to attract them.

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