Chapter 1

Introduction
1.1.

Recruitment

Recruitment can be understood as the process of searching for and obtaining applicants
for jobs, from among whom the right people can be selected. Recruitment involves attracting and
obtaining as many applications as possible form eligible job-seekers.
Recruitment is the process of locating and encouraging potential applicants to apply for
existing or anticipated job openings. It is actually a linking function, joining together those with
jobs to fill and those seeking jobs.
Recruitment, logically aims at
(i)
(ii)

attracting a large number of qualified applicants who are ready to take up the job if the
job is offered
offering enough information for unqualified persons to self-select themselves out

Recruitment can be formally defined as follows:

It is the process of finding and attracting capable applicants for employment. The process
begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applications are submitted. The result
is a pool of applicants from which new employees are selected.
Theoretically, recruitment process is said to end with the receipt of applications, in
practice the activity extends to screening of applications so as to eliminate those who are not
qualified for the job.
1.2.

Purpose and Importance of Recruitment

The general purpose of the recruitment is to provide a pool of potentially qualified job
candidates. Specifically the purposes are to:
1. Determine the present and future requirements of the firm in conjunction with its personnelplanning and job analysis activities.
2. Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost.
3. Help increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the number of visibly
under-qualified or over-qualified job applicants.
4. Help reduce the probability that job applicants, once recruited and selected, will leave the
organization only after a short period of time.
5. Meet the organizations legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its
workforce.
6. Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates.
7. Increase organizational and individual effectiveness in the short term and long term.

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8. Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job
applicants.
9. Poor recruitment can cause problems in the long run for the organization.
Recruitment represents the first contact that a company makes with the potential hires. It is
through recruitment that many individuals will come to know a company, and eventually decide
whether they wish to work for it. A well-planned and well-managed recruiting effort will result in
high-quality applicants, whereas, a haphazard and piecemeal effort will result in mediocre ones.
High quality employees cannot be selected when better candidates so not know of job openings,
are not interested in working for the company, and do not apply. The recruitment process should
inform qualified individuals about employment opportunities, create a positive image of the
company, provide enough information about the jobs so that applicants can make comparisons
with their qualifications and interests, and generate enthusiasm among the best candidates so that
they will apply for the vacant positions.
Recruitment lends itself as a potential source of competitive advantage to a firm. An
effective approach to recruitment can help a company successfully compete for limited human
resources. The firm must choose a recruiting approach that produces the best pool of candidates
quickly and cost effectively. A recruiting programme helps the firm in at least four ways:

Attract highly qualified and competent people

Ensure that the selected candidates stay longer with the company.
Make sure that there is match between cost and benefit.
Help the firm create more culturally diverse workforce.

The failure to generate an adequate number of reasonably qualified applicants can prove
costly in several ways. It can greatly complicate the selection process and may result in lowering
of selection standards. The poor quality of selection means extra cost on training and
supervision. Furthermore, when recruitment fails to meet the organizational needs for talent, a
typical response is to raise entry - level pay scales.
This can distort traditional wage and salary relationships in the company, resulting in
unavoidable consequences. Thus, the effectiveness of the recruitment process can play a major
role in determining the resources that must be expended on HR activities and their ultimate
success.

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Chapter 2
Factors Governing Recruitment
The recruitment function of the organizations is affected and governed by a mix of
various 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
controlled by the organization. The internal and external factors affecting recruitment function of
an organization are:
Factors influencing recruitment

External factors
- Supply and demand
- Unemployment rate
- Labour market
- Political-social
- Sons of soil
- Image

Internal Factors
- Recruitment policy
- HRP
- Size of firm
- Cost
- Growth and expansion

Figure 2.1. Factors influencing Recruitment

2.1. External Factors Affecting Recruitment:
The external forces are the forces which cannot be controlled by the organization. The major
external forces are:
(i) Supply and demand
The availability of manpower both within and outside the organization is an important
determinant in the recruitment process. If the company has a demand for more professionals and
there is limited supply in the market for the professional demanded by the company, then the
company will have to depend upon internal sources by providing them special training and
development programs.
(ii) Labour market
Employment conditions in the community where the organization is located will influence
the recruiting efforts of the organization. If there is surplus of manpower at the time of
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recruitment, even informal attempts at the time of recruiting like notice boards display of the
requisition or announcement in the meeting etc. will attract more than enough applicants.
(iii)

Image / goodwill

Image of the employer can work as a potential constraint for recruitment. An organization
with positive image and goodwill as an employer finds it easier to attract and retain employees
than an organization with negative image. Image of a company is based on what organization
does and affected by industry. For example, finance was taken up by fresher MBAs when many
finance companies were coming up.
(iv)

Political-social- legal environment

Various government regulations prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment have

direct impact on recruitment practices. For example, Government of India has introduced
legislation for reservation in employment for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, physically
handicapped etc. Also, trade unions play important role in recruitment. This restricts
management freedom to select those individuals who it believes would be the best performers. If
the candidate cant meet criteria stipulated by the union but union regulations can restrict
recruitment sources.
(v)Unemployment rate
One of the factors that influence the availability of applicants is the growth of the economy
(whether economy is growing or not and its rate). When the company is not creating new jobs,
there is often oversupply of qualified labor which in turn leads to unemployment.
(vi)

Competitors

The recruitment policies of the competitors also effect the recruitment function of the
organizations. To face the competition, many a times the organizations have to change their
recruitment policies according to the policies being followed by the competitors.
2.2. Internal Factors Affecting Recruitment:
The internal factors i.e. the factors which can be controlled by the organization are:
(i)

Recruitment policy

The recruitment policy of an organization specifies the objectives of recruitment and

provides a framework for implementation of recruitment program. It may involve organizational
system to be developed for implementing recruitment programs and procedures by filing up
vacancies with best qualified people. With the HRMS application HAPA (Human resources and
People Appreciation) the candidate bank can be easily managed by storing the resumes of the
applicants& by assigning them various rounds of interviews. This helps the HR in filtering a
huge volume of available candidate profiles for a vacancy, which helps in the possibility of
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finding the most suitable profile. This feature helps to streamline the recruitment procedure also
in the implementation & automation of the recruitment program in accordance to the policies.

(ii)

Factors affecting recruitment policy:

Organizational objectives
Personnel policies of the organization and its competitors.
Government policies on reservations.
Preferred sources of recruitment.
Need of the organization.
Recruitment costs and financial implications.
Human resource planning

Effective human resource planning helps in 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 must possess.
(iii)

Size of the firm

The size of the firm is an important factor in recruitment process. If the organization is
planning to increase its operations and expand its business, it will think of hiring more personnel,
which will handle its operations.
(iv)

Cost

Recruitment incur cost to the employer, therefore, organizations try to employ that source
of recruitment which will bear a lower cost of recruitment to the organization for each candidate.
(v)

Growth and expansion

Organization will employ or think of employing more personnel if it is expanding its

operations.

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Chapter 3
Recruitment Process

Figure 3.1. Recruitment Process

There are mainly five stages of recruitment. They are:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)

Recruitment Planning
Strategy Development
Searching
Screening
Evaluation and Control

3.1. Recruitment Planning:

Recruitment planning mainly involves the translation of likely job vacancies and information
about the nature of these jobs into a set of objectives or targets that specifies the number and type
of applicants contracted.
3.2. Strategy Development:
It involves the factors such as:
(i)

Make or Buy:
Firms may be ready to make employees. Making employee means hiring less skilled
workers and invest on training and education programs. Organizations hiring less skilled workers
shall have to pay less for these employees.

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Buying employee means hiring skilled workers and professionals. It has the advantage
in the sense that the skilled labors and professionals can begin the work immediately and little
training may be required. But on the other hand the workers may demand higher remunerations.
(ii)

Technological Sophistication:

Technological advancement such as computers have given employers and job seekers a
wider scope of options for screening stage. They have begun sending videotapes about
themselves to a number of companies without wasting time and without spending money on
travel.
(iii)

Where and How to look:

For managerial and professional employees firms look into national market. They usually
look into regional market for technical employees and for clerical and blue-collar employees,
they prefer local markets. How to look means the various methods or sources of recruitment
involved. Some examples are: Advertisements, Professional and Trade associations, Campus
Recruitment etc.
3.3. Searching:
After Recruitment planning and Strategy, the Search process can begin.Search process involves
two stepsi.

Source Activation:
It means no actual recruiting takes place until the line managers have verified that a vacancy
does exist or will exist. If the Source activation is good, then it results in a flood of applications /
resumes.
The applications received must be screened well. Those who pass have to be contracted
and invited for the interview. Unsuccessful applicants must be sent the letters of regret.

ii.

Selling:
It concerns about communications. Organizations do whatever they can do to attract
applicants. But on the other hand they resist the temptation of overselling their virtues.
In selling the company, both the message and the media deserve attention. Message refers
to the employment and advertisement. With regard to the media, it stated that effectiveness of
any recruiting message depends on the media.
3.4. Screening:
Screening is the integral part of the recruiting process. In this process, the various
applications which were received in response to the advertisement are checked and only eligible
candidates are called for an interview. Interview is conducted by a selection committee

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comprising the Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and the subject experts. Here, the recruitment process
extends up to screening the applications. The selection process commences only later.
3.5. Evaluation and Control:
It is necessary because the recruitment process has involved significant cost such as:
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)

Salaries for the recruiters.

Management and professional time spent.
Advertisement costs.
Administrative expenses.
Costs of overtime and outsourcing.
Costs of recruiting suitable candidates.

There should always be several queries regarding whether the recruitment methods used are
valid and whether the recruitment process itself is effective.
Cost of advertisements, time taken for the process, and the suitability of the candidates
for consideration in the selection process should be gathered and statistically evaluated.
However, it is seldom carried out in reality.

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Conclusion

Recruitment is an important issue for any organization. Recruitment and selection allows
an organization to assess the vacancy and choose the best personnel who will lead the
organization in future. So the organization should give more emphasize on selecting a person. A
person who can carry forwarded the organization in terms of development, values and ethics.
Mainly the precious resource for any organization is their knowledge based efficient workers.
The organizations should more cautious on this issue to ensure the quality and ethics.
The failure to generate an adequate number of reasonably qualified applicants can prove
costly in several ways like complication in the selection process, extra cost on training and
supervision etc. thus the effectiveness of the recruitment process can play a major role in
determining the resources that must be expended on other HR activities and ultimate success.

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References
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Aswathappa.K, Human Resource Management, Seventh edition, Tata McGraw Hill

Education (India) Private Limited, pp. 191-213, 2015

[2]

Rao.VSP, Human Resource Management: Text and cases, First edition, Excel Books, New
Delhi-2000.

[3]

DeCenzo. David A. & Robbins. Stephen P, Personnel/Human Resource Management,

Third edition, PHI/Pearson.

[4]

Venkatapathy.R & Menacheri. Assissi, Industrial Relations & Labour Welfare, Adithya
Publications, CBE, 2001.

[5]

Gibson. Robert L and Mitchell. Marianne H, Introduction to Counselling and Guidance, VI

edition, PHI, 2005.

[6]

Rao. P.L, Comprehensive Human Resource Management, Excel Books, New Delhi

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