Sunday, 1 May 2022

Sources of Recruitment

 

Identification of sources of recruitment is very important in the recruitment process (Muscalu, 2015). There is a variety of recruitment sources and these sources reach applicants differently (Karim et al., 2021). Recruitment sources are classified into two categories; internal sources and external sources (Malik, 2018). Organizations use both resources most of the time to increase the chances of attracting candidates, preparing, and being competitive (Muscalu, 2015).  

Internal sources

Internal sources are used to fulfill the vacant jobs by own members of the organization (Muscalu, 2015). Utilizing internal employees is the most popular and common way to fill up vacancies in higher hierarchical positions of an organization (Malik, 2018). Cost efficiency, increment of employee satisfaction, and morale are some advantages of internal resources for recruitment (Hamza et al., 2021).

a. Promotions and transfers

Promotions define as the fulfillment of higher positions of the organizations by the existing qualified employees which increase the prestige, responsibilities, compensation, and other facilities (Karim et al., 2021). Although promoting employees is cost-effective, leads to arise conflicts among peers (Muscalu, 2015). Transfers mean the shifting of employees from their present job to another similar job without any changes in rank, prestige, responsibilities, compensation, and other facilities (Muscalu, 2015).

b.  Job posting and job bidding

The job posting is the process of notifying the employees about a job opening within the organization. Job bidding allows authorized employees to apply for the posted job according to qualifications (Hamza et al., 2021). Job biding is the main source of internal recruitment (Karim et al., 2021).

c.  Employee referrals

Recommendations of existing employees of an organization to find out talented candidates are known as employee referrals (Karim et al., 2021). Talent banks can use to record candidates’ details electronically and maintain employee referrals (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

External sources

External sources allow attracting candidates from outsides for a particular vacant job in an organization (Karim et al., 2021). External recruitment must be well-planned and coordinated. There is a necessity to have well-planned and coordinated external recruitment sources for fast-growing organizations which require highly qualified employees (Muscalu, 2015).

a.  E-recruitment

Using the internet to advertise vacancies, to provide information about jobs and organizations is known as e-recruitment. Communication between employer and candidate is done via e-mails (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Online recruitment provides a large number of candidates at a low cost and helps to enhance the processing speed of applications (Muscalu, 2015).

b.  Advertising

Advertisements are the most famous method in external recruitment sources (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The human resource department of an organization should pay more commitment in terms of eliminating unqualified candidates’ applications in recruitment via advertising. Elimination of unqualified applications gathered through advertising is highly cost, much time, and huge energy consumption (Malik, 2018).

c.  Educational institution

Organizations recruit candidates from colleges, universities, and other institutes by using various tests (Karim et al., 2021). Organizing visits and events, conducting cooperation programs, and hiring part-time students are methods of recruiting candidates from educational institutions (Muscalu, 2015). Many respected co-operations use educational institutes as a major source of recruitment (Karim et al., 2021).  

d. Recruitment agencies

Recruitment agencies are rich sources consisting of unemployed youths’ information in large quantities. Organizations can gather information about prospective candidates according to the vacant job’s requirements. The availability of a large database and cost-effectiveness are the main advantages of these agencies (Malik, 2018).  Recruitment agencies are the major source of recruiting office and sales staff (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

Main recruitment sources of some Indian organizations

IT professionals in the Delhi region of India are recruited mainly from campuses. Employee referrals, direct applicants and job portals, internal recruitment, social media, placement consultants, and employee poaching are moderate recruitment sources use in the Delhi region of India (Singh and Kamal, 2019, p. 322). The most preferred recruitment source of IBM India Pvt Ltd is internal references. Job portals, vendors, social networks, campus recruitment, external references, and walk-ins are other recruitment sources of IBM India Pvt Ltd (Jeevan, and Nijaguna, 2018, p.58). Avinash, Laxmikant and Kalyan (2021) found that employee referrals, job consultancy, and campus interviews are the popular recruitment sources in private sector organizations in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra, India. But much not preferred e-recruitment as a recruitment source (p.10).

Recruitment sources: Experience

A reputed supermarket chain in Sri Lanka is also using both internal and external sources for recruitment. Promotions are the most preferred internal sources. Experienced and qualified retail managers have been promoted to area managers. Customer care assistants will be promoted to supervisors according to their performance at the outlet level. The transfer is another internal recruitment source and allocates employees to other outlets in the same cluster. Website advertisements and social media are the main external sources of recruitment. Paper advertisements and work-ins are also used to recruit candidates externally. Most recently this supermarket chain faced a huge problem of employee turnover. The human resource department had organized recruitment campaigns to recruit a large number of candidates at once.

Conclusion

Identification of suitable recruitment sources is very important for the success of a recruitment process. An organization must think about cost, time, and other resource allocations before deciding on recruitment sources. Most companies use a combination of internal and external resources for recruitment. An organization must analyze all possible recruitment sources and decide the most appropriate combination of internal and external recruitment resources to build up a well-conducted recruitment process to collect a large candidate pool.

References

1. Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice,13th edn. London: Kogan Page.

2. Dhotre Avinash, C., Shrimangal Laxmikant, S. and Dhawle Kalyan, B., (2021). ‘Recruitment and Selection Methods Used in Private Sector: With Special Reference to Aurangabad District’. International Journal of Advance Study and Research Work, 4(3), pp. 1-13.

3. Hamza, P.A., Othman, B.J., Gardi, B., Sorguli, S., Aziz, H.M., Ahmed, S.A., Sabir, B.Y., Ismael, N.B., Ali, B.J. and Anwar, G., (2021). ‘Recruitment and Selection: The Relationship between Recruitment and Selection with Organizational Performance’. International Journal of Engineering, Business and Management, 5(3), pp.1-13.

4. Jeevan, P.K. and Nijaguna, G., (2018). A Study on Sources of Recruitment at IBM India Pvt. Ltd.

5. Karim, M.M., Bhuiyan, M.Y.A., Nath, S.K.D. and Latif, W.B., (2021). ‘Conceptual Framework of Recruitment and Selection Process'. International Journal of Business and Social Research, 11(02), pp.18-25.

6.  Malik, P. K, (2018). Sales Management. 7th edn. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

7. Muscalu, E., (2015). ‘Sources of human resources recruitment organization’. Land Forces Academy Review20(3), pp.351-359

8. Singh, H. and Kamal, R., (2019). Recruitment practices in IT sector: ‘A study of Employees perspective’. Pramana research Journal9(1), pp.318-323.


11 comments:

  1. Ravindu, in Sri Lanka ,lot of organizations choose posters, banners and leaflets and sometimes even public address systems to source CVs for vacancies. Even though this is not mentioned in literature this aspect also should be noted when discussing employee sourcing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with you Amal, Even if we use websites to advertise for non-executives we are displaying posters near the outlets. I think the scarcity of IT knowledge of Sri Lankans is the factor for using these types of sourcing methods other than e-recruitment.

      Delete
  2. Ravindu, I would suggest E -recruiting as a source of recruiting . According to Kumar (2015), The Impact of Technology on Recruiting Organizations have had to adjust to the new reality of online recruiting. The rapidly emerging field of E-recruiting is defined as: the use of communication technologies such as websites and social media to find and attract potential job applicants, to keep them interested in the organization during the selection processes, and to influence their job choice decisions. (Chapman & Goddolei, 2017) One of the primary advantages of E-recruiting is the potential to reach a large number of potential applicants at low cost (Gueutal et al., 2005; Stone et al., 2005). E-recruiting provides the opportunity to reach applicants wherever they are through their mobile devices.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Naomi. Here I have briefly explained the e-recruitment under external sources and you can find a further illustration in my 4th blog: E-recruitment.

      Delete
  3. Recruitment should be a proactive process focused on bringing in skilled and experienced employees into the organization not merely an activity of filling gaps, Shafique (2012) states that too much internal promotions can lead to stagnation of organizations processes and staff on the other hand recruiting externally for senior positions may bring about a negative impression in internal employees that leaving the company is the only means to get promoted. A wise solution to this problem would be having a balance between both the methods.

    Shafique, O. (2012). Recruitment in the 21st Century. Interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 4(2), pp.887-901.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agreed with you Pragash. Promotions are defined as existing qualified personnel filling higher positions in organizations, increasing their status, responsibility, income, and other benefits (Karim et al., 2021). Although it is cost-effective to promote staff, it might lead to disagreements among colleagues (Muscalu, 2015).

      Delete
  4. To grow and survive, an organization must use both sources of recruitment effectively. An organization functioning in a highly competitive environment should prioritize external sources, whereas an entity operating in a slow-changing environment can benefit from internal recruitment (Muscalu, 2015).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Muscalu, E., (2015)states that Identifying sources of recruitment is an important step in the course of the recruitment process. Recruitment sources may be internal or external, but most use both sources, thereby increasing the chances of attracting candidates as well as prepared and competitive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed Rifky, Other than that, any employers recruit from a variety of sources. Others have argued that different recruitment channels reach applicant groups with varied qualities, such as motivation or perceived career mobility (Karim et al., 2021).

      Delete
  6. Armstrong (2009) also explains that understanding the requirement of the organization (what the organization is trying to measure by having the candidate take the psychometric test) and selecting the most appropriate type of test is critical. Also, Armstrong (2009) states that the tests used by organizations should be reliable and only those developed by well known psychologists or institutions are recommended to be used.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed with you Ruwani, further more, Psychometric Assessment is one of the scientific tools that may be utilized in the selection of employees. Psychometric exams are used to examine the abilities, qualities, personality traits, and diverse skills of candidates for certain positions (Jenkins, 2001).

      Delete

Challenges in Recruitment and Selection Process

The recruitment and selection process has to be cost-effective in selecting qualified employees required to satisfy the human resources need...