Chapter 5
Recruiting Applicants
Chapter 5 Objectives
• 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
Model Linking HRM Practices to Competitive
Advantage
Linking Recruitment to Competitive
Advantage
A recruiting program has five goals:
Achieve cost
efficiency
Attract highly
qualified
candidates
Assist in efforts to
comply with
nondiscrimination
laws
Ensure those hired
stay with company
Help create a more
culturally diverse
workforce
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
Recruiting program goals:
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.
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
Step 1: Identifying the Job Opening
• 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.
Recruitment Planning
Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening
• Whether to use core or contingency
personnel.
• If core personnel are to be used, should
the firm recruit them internally or
externally.
Recruitment Planning
Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening
• 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.
Recruitment Planning
Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening
• 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.
Recruitment Planning
Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening
• 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.
Recruitment Planning
Step 2: Decide How to Fill the Job Opening
Internal recruitment
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 Planning
Step 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 Planning
Step 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 Planning
Step 3: Identify the Target Population
• Specify worker
requirements.
• Decide whether to target
certain segments of the
applicant population.
Recruitment Planning
Step 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 Planning
Step 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
Computerized Progression and Supervisor Selection
Recruitment
Method
Strengths
Weaknesses
Computerized
career
progression
systems
• Candidates can be found
quickly.
• Limited to only objective or
factual information.
• Helps identify a broad
spectrum of candidates.
• Information of a more
subjective nature is excluded.
Supervisor
selection
• Very popular with
supervisors.
• Usually very subjective.
• Supervisor is in a good
position to know the
capabilities of potential
candidates.
• Some qualified employees
may be overlooked.
• Susceptible to bias, leading to
possible discrimination.
Methods of Internal Recruitment
Job Posting
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.
Methods of Internal Recruitment
Job Posting
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.
Methods of Internal Recruitment
Career Development Systems
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.
Methods of External Recruitment
Employee Referrals
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.
Methods of External Recruitment
Applicant-Initiated and Help-Wanted Ads
Recruitment
Method
Strengths
Weaknesses
Applicantinitiated
recruitment
• Efficient and low cost.
• There may be no jobs
available when the applications
come in or by the time a job
becomes vacant, many of these
individuals may have already
found other jobs.
Help-wanted
advertisements
• Large audience can be
reached in a relatively short
period of time.
•Candidates are likely to be
highly motivated.
• Aids in ensuring equal
opportunity to apply for job
openings.
• Often ineffective.
• May attract too many
applicants, making the
screening process cumbersome.
Methods of External Recruitment
Employment 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 Recruitment
Employment 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 Recruitment
Executive 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 Recruitment
Campus Recruiting
• Used to fill specialized
entry-level jobs.
• Is costly and time
consuming.
• Recruitment process can be
rather slow.
Methods of External Recruitment
Online 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 Recruitment
Choosing the Right Method
The type of job being filled.
How quickly the job needs to be filled.
The geographic region of recruitment.
The cost of implementing the recruitment method.
Whether the method will attract the right mix of
candidates from an EEO perspective.
The Line Manager’s Role in the
Recruitment Process
1
Identifying
recruitment
needs triggered
by replacement,
additional
positions being
added, and a
newly created
job being
established.
2
Communicating
recruitment
needs to the
HRM department
including needed
skills/qualificatio
ns for the job
and attractive
and unattractive
features of the
job.
3
Interacting with
applicants to
keep them
informed of the
status, schedule
interviews at
their
convenience,
and allow them
to speak to their
future
coworkers.
The Human Resource Department’s Role
in the Recruitment Process
1
Planning the
recruitment
process:
Determine where
to find the
applicants and
how to attract
them.
2
Implementing the
recruitment
process: Includes
writing an ad,
choosing the
employment
agency, conducting
campus interviews,
and coordinating
candidates on-site
visits.