HR – Planning and
Recruiting
Tehzeeb Sakina Amir
HRM-session 5
Spring 2011-MBA
Main contents
 Personnel
Planning and forecasting
 Recruiting job candidates – recruiting
options
 Developing & using application forms
The Recruitment and Selection
process
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Common HR way:
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Decide what positions to fill through personnel
planning and forecasting
Build a pool of candidates – internal or external
Have candidates complete application forms and
initial screening
Use of selection tools like tests, physical exams etc
Decide who to make an offer to, by having the
supervisor interview the candidates
Planning and Forecasting
or personnel planning – The
process of deciding what positions the firm
will have to fill and how to fill them
 Employment planning should come out of
the strategic plans of the organization:
setting up new plant, entering new
markets, reduce costs etc.
 Employment

It will influence the type of positions need to
be filled or eliminated
Planning and Forecasting
 The
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area of concern:
To fill the openings from within the firm or
outside.
Each option produces its own personnel plans
 Employment
plans must be based on
basic forecasts of three things:
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Personnel needs
Supply of inside candidates
Supply of outside candidates
Forecasting Personnel Needs
 The
traditional approach - on revenue
basis
 More comprehensive approach would be:
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To consider projected turnover rate
Decisions to upgrade or downgrade products
or services
Technological changes
Financial resources
Forecasting Personnel Needs
Trend Analysis –study of a firm’s past
employment needs over a period of years to
predict future needs
 It provides an initial working ground as
employment needs change over time and
employment levels rarely depend upon passage
of time
 Other factors can also affect staffing needs

Forecasting Personnel Needs
Ratio Analysis – A forecasting technique for
determining future staff needs by using ratios
(say between sales volume and number of
employees needed)
 It assumes that productivity remains about the
same!
 If productivity change then ratio change

Forecasting Personnel Needs
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The Scatter Plot – a graphical method used to
help identify the relationship between two
variables
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If we can forecast level of business activity, we can
estimate for personnel needs as well.
Drawbacks
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Assume that firm will continue with existing structure
& activities
Focus exclusively on projected sales volume &
historical personnel relationship
Support outdated compensation plan where
manager’s reward increases with the number of staff
reporting to him and do not reveal managers who
expand irrespective of company’s strategic needs.
Rest on ‘non-productive’ idea of increasing staff as
inevitable
Tend to validate and internalize existing planning
processes and ways of doing things despite of
changes
Computer based forecast
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It enables HR manager to utilize maximum number
of variables while making staff forecasts
Determination of future staffing needs by projecting
sales, volume of production, and personnel required
to maintain the volume of output, using software
packages
Can also study cause and effect relationships!
Managerial judgments!!
Forecasting the supply of inside
candidates

Determining the current skill level of the employees,
identifying the potential employee and which employee would
be most suitable for the projected opening! At times it is
OBVIOUS!!!
 The other times, managers use QUALIFICATION
INVENTORIES
 Manual or computerized records listing employees’
education, career and development interests, languages,
special skills, training courses and so on to be used in
selecting inside candidate for promotion.
• Help to determine which employee is available for
promotion or transfer
Manual Systems
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Manual Systems - A Personnel Inventory or
Development Record are some manual devices
Personnel Replacement Charts – Company records
showing present performance and promotability of
inside candidates for the most important positions
Position Replacement Card – a card prepared for
each position in a company to show possible
replacement candidates & their qualifications.

Show their present performance, promotion potential and
training
Computerized Information Systems
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Use of Computerized data for promotions/transfers
etc
Enter & Update data on every performance
appraisal
Various packages software systems are available,
where at the time of need, enter the position’s
specifications (education, skills) , the system
produce a list of potential candidates
Coding is done on basis of work experience, product
knowledge, industry experience, formal education
Keeping the Data Safe
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Danger of data theft…very sensitive issue
HR Manager must guard the privacy of the
employees:
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Perform background checks to whoever access the data
Trusted worker only!! No outsiders
Perform random checks on existing employees
Limited access
Forecasting the supply of outside
candidates
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Employer may want to forecast the availability of
outside candidates
Low unemployment rates means less availability
BUT High unemployment rate does not ensure
availability too! (skilled workers)
Economic projections also indicate the way
employment would go
Effective Recruiting
Employee Recruiting – finding and/or attracting
applicants for the employer’s open positions.
 Effective Recruiting is increasingly important
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Irrespective of high or low unemployment rate
Recruiting effectiveness (complexities)
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Recruitment efforts must be in line with company’s
strategic plans (how, when, what)
Select the method which is best suited for the job opening
Success of recruitment also depend upon ‘non-recruiting
issues!!’
Simultaneously pre-screening candidates
Firm’s own image affect recruiting results
Recruitment Function
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Centralized recruiting
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Pros – in-line with overall
strategy
Reduces duplication
Spread recruitment cost
over more
departments/locations
Builds recruitment
experts
Produces synergies
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De-centralized
recruiting
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Pros - - more viable for
blue-collar jobs, where
local population is
preferred
Retail & service sectors
also prefer decentralized
recruiting
Measuring Recruiting Effectiveness
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The question is what to measure and how to measure:
In what to measure case, how many applicants did we
generate through each of our recruitment source?
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quantity but also quality……
In how to measure each recruiting source effectiveness,
use of pre-screening selection devices (a work sample
test) or testing the job knowledge of the candidate can
be the indicators of a better pool of talents. Applicants
may be few but of high quality.
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GE Medical – ‘Multigenerational staffing plan’ to go with each of
its products’ ‘multiyear product plan’
Recruiters meeting, employees’ referrals doubled up,
The Recruiting Yield Pyramid
To calculate number of
applicants they must
generate to hire required
number of new employees
50
100
New hires
Offers made
2:1
150
Candidates
interviewed 3:2
200
Candidates
invited 4:3
1200
Leads
generated
6:1
Internal Sources of Candidates
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Current employees or promotions from within
are at times best sources of candidates:
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You know ins and outs of the current employee
More committed person
Increased morale of workforce
Less orientation & training required (perhaps)
Drawbacks of hiring from within: employees applying
and not getting the job may get ‘disconnected’, feeling
of rejection, biases etc
Internal Sources of Candidates
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Finding them:
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Job posting – publicizing the open job to employees
Personnel records
Skills banks
Rehiring - those who have left the company
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Less training / orientation required
Check what they were doing when they left the
company
Wrong message to existing employees!
Internal Sources of Candidates
Planning – the ongoing
process of systematically identifying,
assessing and developing organizational
leadership to enhance performance. It
involves three step process
 Succession
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Identify firm’s future key positions needs
Creating & assessing candidates (identify
potentials internally and externally) &
providing them developmental experiences
Selecting those who will fill-in
Outside Sources of Candidates
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Recruiting via internet – on line jobs, job sites, ads on
their own sites, keyword searches on resume database
sites (hotjobs.com). Social networking sites – linkIn.com
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Advantages
• Cost effective
• Generates more responses (9 times more applicants) & quicker too
• Longer lifespan
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Disadvantages
• Selected people use internet
• Unsolicited and irrelevant job applicants
• May end up deluged with resumes
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Using Applicant Tracking Systems – on line systems that
help employers attract, gather, screen, compile, and
manage applicants for e.g resruitsoft.com
Outside Sources of Candidates
via internet – Designing Internet
Ads and Systems
 Recruiting
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Should be
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User friendly, easy to use format & forms
Less confusing & time consuming
Attractive enough with compelling words/phrases
Attention catching
Ensure privacy
Effective feedback system
Should avoid
• Use of abbreviations
• Poor job descriptions
• Too much of graphics/links/complicated forms
Advertising
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Two main areas:
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The advertising medium
• Target your ads to reach your prospective employees
• Innovative ways for specialized jobs
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The ad’s construction
• AIDA - Attention, interest, desire, action
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Attention – use key words/phrases
Interest – nature & aspects of the job
Desire – highlight needs & desires like traveling, challenging
etc
Action – ‘call today’ ‘post your resume online too” or ‘walk in”
These ads can be used to develop employer’s
image as well
Recruiting Options
1.
2.
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5.
Temp Agencies
Headhunters
College Recruiting
Outsourcing/offshoring
Referrals and Walk-Ins
Temp Agencies
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Hiring contingent or temporary workers through
temporary help employment agencies
Also known as part-time or just-in-time workers
Not limited to blue-collar or clerical jobs but also
temporary CEOs
Direct hire or through agency
Benefits & Costs
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Want for higher productivity and Less expensive to
recruit & train
Agency fee adds to the cost, less commitment
Temp Agencies
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Areas of concern
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Employers’ treatment
Job insecurity
Lack of insurance &
benefits
Misled about job
assignments
Underemployed
Feeling of alienation
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HRM responsibilities
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Invoicing
Time sheets
Temp-to-perm policy
Recruitment of and
benefits for temp
workers
Equal Employment
Opportunity statement
Job description
information
Outsourcing/Offshoring
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Outsourcing / offshoring jobs is gaining
popularity
 Main issues:
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Potential for political instability
Cultural misunderstandings
Security & privacy concerns
Dealing with foreign contracts, liability, legal systems
etc
Special training needs (language/accent)
Expected cost saving may not materialize
Anxiety of own work force
Headhunters
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Executive recruiter or Headhunters
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Key executive & technical positions
Two types of executive recruiters:
• Contingent
• Retained
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Technology and specialization are changing the trend
of executive recruiters search business
Pros and Cons
• Irreplaceable, save time & cost, ensure confidentiality, highly
potential employees are ‘hunted’, fee can be insignificant
• Need to be told explicitly what kind of person is required and
why, misleading information can result in disasters
Headhunters
 Guidelines
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for HRM
Make sure the recruiter is capable of a
thorough search
Meet the individual who will actually handle
your assignment
Know their charges (hidden costs)
Never solely rely on them!
College Recruiting
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Sending a representative to screen applicants and
create a pool
Management trainees
It is expensive and time consuming
Ineffective or untrained recruiters!
On-campus recruiting goals
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First - to determine if the candidate is worthy of further
considerations
Second – attract good candidates
Other things to be taken care of are the selection of
college/university and the College career centers
On-site visits
Internships
Referrals and Walk-Ins
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An important recruiting option is ‘Employee
Referral’
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Firm posts job openings on intranet, bulletin boards
etc
At times rewards are offered for referrals which turn
into successful hiring.
Pros and Cons
• High quality candidates are generated, accurate information,
the new employee will come with a more realistic picture,
cost effective approach,
• If firm rejects the referrals then morale of the employee could
go down, can be discriminatory
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Walk-Ins
Ad construction – AIDA
marks 5 and time:30 mins
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Task 1:
 Task 2:
 Analyze the given
 A RUN-of-the-mill ad
advertisement to the
would be given to
group in the light of
the group
the guidelines
 Restructure /
discussed in the class
redesign the ad in
 List down the
the light of the
strengths and areas
discussion.
of improvements
that you have found in
the given ad.
Developing and Using Application
Forms
 Purpose
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Judgments on basis of education &
experience
Draw conclusions about applicant’s progress
and growth
Draw tentative conclusions about applicant’s
stability based on previous work records
Use the data in the application and predict the
success possibility of the applicant on the job