4.

1 Introduction: While Human Resources Planning focuses on the planning part of the activity the the implementation of the plans happen with the effective execution on sound recruitment and selection processes. This chapter focuses on the need for structured approach to recruitment and selection activities to ensure that the right number and the right kind of people at the right places, at the right time, to do things which result in both the individual receiving the maximum longrange benefit and organizational success.
Objectives: After studying this unit, you will be able to:

Understand the critical role of recruitment Identify appropriate Recruitment sources Selection tools and methods 4.2 Concepts of Recruitment:
Evaluating the abilities of a human being is an extremely difficult task. This fact has not entirely prevented the use of various techniques of quick appraisal, some of which are well organized can be called "pseudosciences." Among such practices are phrenology (skull protrusions), physiognomy (facial features), astrology (birth date), pigmentation (blondebrunette), and graphology (handwriting). Most people do not consciously practice any of these pseudosciences, but many have favourite techniques of their own. We must emphasize that there is no easy shortcut to the accurate evaluation of a human being under any circumstances. The length and complexity of the modern selection procedure are tangible evidence of this fact. Recruitment or manpower selection process is the first step in the employment of labour and the methods through which labour is brought into industry has much to do with the ultimate success or failure of such employment. Despite tremendous unemployment it is not easy to find the right type of labour. Since workers were drawn from the rural population, in the early days of industrial evolution in India, factories found much difficulty in recruiting the necessary labour due to the reluctance of workers to leave their villages and work in distant towns cut off from their kith and kin. Sometimes they could not adjust themselves to industrial life and eventually returned to their native villages. That is why recruitment has been regarded as the most important function of personnel administration, because unless the right type of people are hired even the best plans, organization charts and control systems would not do much good. Careful recruitment of employees is particularly important in India for two reasons: First, under the existing legal conditions, when an industrial worker is discharged, and industrial dispute can be raised by the workman in regard to such discharge and the Labour Court adjudicating such disputes would determine whether the termination of service was justified and to order reinstatement if such order was appropriate. As a precaution against unreasonable discharge by way of punishment, certain rules of procedure are required to be strictly followed by the employees before the order of discharge is passed. Failure to carry out this procedure undermines the case if it goes to an industrial court. Secondly, the chances of mismatching the job and the person are much higher in India. h under the present labour market conditions in India, the employee's choice is very much limited and he will accept any job irrespective of his suitability. Under these conditions, the pressure to properly match man to job is only onesided,

that is, from employer's side only.

4.3 Factors Affecting Recruitment

All organizations, whether large or small, do engage in recruiting activity, though not to the same extent. This differs with: (i) the size of the organization (ii) the employment conditions in the community where the organization is located (iii) the effects of past recruiting efforts which show the organization's ability to locate and keep good performing people (iv) working conditions and salary and benefit packages offered by the organization which may influence turnover and necessitate future recruiting (v) the rate of growth of organization (vi) the level of seasonality of operations and future expansion and production programmes and (vii) cultural, economic and legal factors etc.

4.4 Sources of Recruitment

The sources of employees can be classified into two types, internal and external. Filling a job opening from within the firm has the advantages of stimulating preparation for possible transfer of promotion, increasing the general level of morale, and providing more information about job candidates through analysis of work histories within the organization. A job posting has a number of advantages. From the view point of the employee, it provides flexibility and greater control over career progress. For the employer, it should result in better matches of employee and job. In most instances, the jobs are posted on notice boards, though some carry listings in the company newspapers. The posting period is commonly 1 week, with the final decision for hiring being completed within 4 weeks. Internal applications are often restricted to certain employees, the guidelines for one company including (1) "good" or "better" on most recent performance review (2) dependable attendance record (3) not under probationary sanction and (4) having been in present position for 1 year. The present supervisor must at some time be informed of his or her subordinate's interest in another job. Some require immediate notification, while others inform only if the employee becomes a prime candidate for the listed opening. The personnel unit acts as a clearing house in screening applications that are unrealistic, preventing an excessive number of bids by a single employee, and counselling employees who are constantly unsuccessful in their attempt to change jobs. Inevitably, the firm must go to external sources for lower entry jobs, for expansion, and for positions whose specifications cannot be met by present personnel. Thus the firm has a number of outside sources available, among which are the following: 1. Advertising: There is a trend toward more selective recruitment in advertising. This can be effected in at least two ways. First, advertisements can be placed in media read only by particular groups. Secondly, more information about the company, the job, and the job specification can be included in the ad to permit some selfscreening. 2. Employment Agencies: Additional screening can be affected through the utilization of employment agencies, both public and private. Today, in contrast to their former unsavoury reputation, the public employment agencies in several States are wellregarded, particularly in the fields of unskilled semiskilled and skilled operative jobs. In the technical and professional areas, however, the private agencies appear to be doing most of the work. Many private agencies tend to specialize in a particular type of worker and job, such as sales, office, executive or engineer. 3. Employee Referrals: Friends and relatives of present employees are also a good source from which employees may be drawn. When the labour market is very tight, large employers frequently offer their employees bonus or prizes for any referrals that are hired and stay with the company for a specific length of time. Some companies maintain a register of former employees whose record was good to contact them when there are new job openings for which they are qualified. This method of recruitment, however, suffers from a serious defect that it encourages nepotism, i.e. persons of one's community or caste are employed, who may or may not be fit for the job.

4. Schools, Colleges and Professional Institutions: Offer opportunities for recruiting their students. They operate placement services where complete biodata and other particulars of the students are available. The companies that need employees maintain contact with Guidance Counsellors of Employment Bureaus and teachers of business and vocational subjects. The prospective employers can review Credentials and interview candidates for management trainees or probationers. Whether the education sought involves a higher secondary certificate, specific vocational training, or a college background with a bachelor's, masters' or doctoral degree, educational institutions provide an excellent source of potential employees for entrylevel positions in organizations. These general and technical/ professional institutions provide bluecollar applicants, whitecollar and managerial personnel. 5. Labour unions: Firms with closed or union shops must look to the union in their recruitment efforts. Disadvantages of a monopolistically controlled labour source are offset, at least particularly, by savings in recruitment costs. With onefifth of the labour force organized into unions, organized labour constitutes an important source of personnel. 6. Casual applicants: Unsolicited applications, both at the gate and through the mail, constitute a muchused source of personnel. These can be developed through provision of attractive employment office facilities and prompt and courteous replies to unsolicited letters. 7. Professional organizations or recruiting firms or executive recruiters: maintain complete information records about employed executives. These firms are looked upon as 'head hunters', 'raiders' and 'pirates' by organizations which lose personnel through their efforts. However, these same organizations may employ "executive search firms" to help them find talent. These consulting firms recommend persons of high calibre for managerial, marketing and production engineers' posts. 8. Indoctrination seminars for colleges professors are arranged to discuss the problem of companies and employees. Professors are invited to take part in these seminars. Visits to plants and banquets are arranged so that the participant professors may be favourably impressed. They may later speak well of a company and help it in getting the required personnel. 9. Unconsolidated applications: For positions in which large numbers of candidates are not available from other sources, the companies may gain keeping files of applications received from candidates who make direct enquiries about possible vacancies on their own, or may send unconsolidated applications. The information may be indexed and filed for future use when there are openings in these jobs. 10. Nepotism: The hiring of relatives will be an inevitable component of recruitment programmes in familyowned firms, such a policy does not necessarily coincide with hiring on the basis of merit, but interest and loyalty to the enterprise are offsetting advantages. 11. Leasing: To adjust to shortterm fluctuations in personnel needs, the possibility of leasing personnel by the hour or day should be considered. This practice has been particularly welldeveloped in the office administration field. The firm not only obtains welltrained and selected personnel but avoids any obligation in pensions, insurance, and other fringe benefits. 12. Voluntary organizations: such as private clubs, social organizations might also provide employees handicaps, widowed or married women, old persons, retired hands, etc., in response to advertisements. 13. Computer data banks: When a company desires a particular type of employee, job

specifications and requirements are fed into a computer, where they are matched against the resume data stored therein. The output is a set of resumes for individuals who meet the requirements. This method is very useful for identifying candidates for hardtofill positions which call for an unusual combination of skills.

Self Assessment Questions III 4.5 Recruitment & Selection Policies 4.5.1 Selection Policy
In order to initiate the procedure for selection, we must satisfy the three preliminary requirements depicted in the diagram. First, there must be the authority to select, which comes from the employment requisition, as developed through analysis of the work load and work force. Secondly, we must have a standard of personnel with which we can compare prospective employees. This is represented by the job specification, as developed through job analysis. A planned recruitment programme provides us with these applicants. The selection procedure is essentially a series of methods of securing pertinent information about the applicant. At each step we learn more about the prospect. The information obtained can then be compared with the job specification, the standard of personnel. If the applicant qualifies, he or she advances to the next step. Thus, the job specification and the job applicant are interrelated at each step in the selection procedure. 4.5.2 Recruitment Policy Once a determination of human resources requirements has been made, the recruitment and selection process can begin. Very often, recruitment is misunderstood as filling in of vacancies. The real purpose of recruitment is not to fill up a vacancy but to add a person to the staff whom the management expects to become important in the future scheme of things. Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization. It is often termed "positive" in that its objective is to increase the selection ratio, that is, the number of applicants per job opening. Dale Yoder and others point out: "Recruitment is a process to discover the sources of manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of an efficient working force". In terms of Stahl, recruitment is the corner stone of the whole personnel structure. Sources for recruiting should be periodically evaluated. For this purpose, the criteria may be the cost per applicant, the applicant/ hiring ratio, tenure, performance appraisals, etc. Recruiting should take into consideration ethical practices, such as use of "truth in hiring" i.e., telling an applicant all about the firm and its position, both good and bad, to enable him to decide whether or not to join the firm, is selected.

A successful and effective recruitment programme necessitates a welldefined recruitment policy, a proper organizational structure, and procedures for locating sources of manpower resources, suitable methods and techniques for utilizing these and a constant assessment and consequent improvement. 4.6 Recruitment Practices in India

The different sources for recruitment in India have been classified thus: (i) Within the organization (ii) Badli or temporary workers (Hi) Employment agencies (iv) Casual Callers (v) Applicants introduced by friends and relatives in the organization (vi) Advertisements and (vii) Labour contractors. All public sector enterprises are required to consider candidates sponsored by the Employment Exchanges and, in most cases, confine the selection to these candidates. However, the private sector is not under any such formal obligation. Under the Apprentices Act, 1961, young craftsmen having received preemployment training in Industrial Training Institutes have to be employed by 'specialized' industries during training period as a percentage of the total number of regular employees. Reservation of 25% of vacancies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes candidates and preferential treatment of displaced persons is a part of statutory requirement of Government andpublic sector employment in India. The recruitment of supervisory personnel in all organized industries is generally by promotion from within the organization. Some industries first recruit a number of young persons as management trainees and after 2 or 3 years absorb them completely. Executives too are mostly promoted from within. Sometimes talented persons are also recruited from Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management and from Universities offering MBA courses etc. The question of preference to "Sons of the Soil" i.e., local population in the matter of employment within the local area has, of late, assumed a complex character. In this connection, the National Commission on Labour has observed: "The solution has to be sought in terms of the primary of common citizenship, geographical mobility and economic feasibility of locating industrial units, on the one hand, and local aspiration on the other."