Process of Recruitment

The process of recruitment involves different activities through which competent potential candidates are searched as specified by human resource planning, and job description and job specification.

The recruitment process is given below:

1) Recruitment Planning

The recruitment process is the initial step of the recruitment process. It involves determining the following:

i) Number of Contacts: Organisations always intend to attract more than the required candidates as they want to make the best choice out of a larger number of candidates. It is also done because many candidates are not willing to join the organization and few of them may not be fulfilling the selection criteria.

So, whenever a recruitment programme is thought of, the organisation has to think about the number of applications it should get to fill all its vacancies with suitable candidates.

ii) Type of Contacts: It involves the type of people to be made aware of the job vacancies according to the job description and job specification.

2) Identifying Recruitment Sources

Once a recruitment plan is finalised representing the number and type of potential candidates; they must be attracted to offer themselves for employment. This makes it essential to identify the sources from which these candidates can be attracted.

3) Contacting Sources

After the final decision about the sources of selecting the potential candidate, the procedure of contacting these sources is initiated. Recruitment is a two-way process and there are mainly two parties, i.e., a recruiter and a recruitee. Based on the information about the candidate, a recruiter can select the candidate.

Similarly, the recruitee, based on the information about the organisation, decides to join or apply somewhere else. Hence, the organisation must choose which information is to be shared with the candidates, especially in the case of external sources.

4) Application Pool

The final aim is to attract more and more candidates to maintain flexibility in selection, no matter what method of recruitment is used. The organisation starts receiving applications from potential candidates as soon as the sources of recruitment are contacted. The type of organization, the kind of jobs, and the conditions in specific human resource markets determine the number of applications.

5) Selection Process

The process of classifying applicants, to hire those who are more competent for the job, is called selection. The selection process requires extremely specialised techniques. Thus, the selection process involves expert employees who are proficient in using selection tests, conducting interviews, etc.

6) Evaluation and Control

Evaluation and control are necessary to enhance the efficiency of recruitment attempts in future. It should be kept in mind that recruitment is an expensive process, involving costs such as the recruiter’s salary, advertising costs, managers’ salaries and various other costs. It is thus essential to evaluate the process of recruitment.