RECRUITMENT :




Once the determination of human requirements has been made,
the recruitment and hiring process can begin .Recruitment is a process of 
searching for prospective employees and simulating them to apply for
jobs in the organization. It is often termed “positive” in that its
objective is to increase the selection ratio, i.e. the number of applicants per
job opening. Hiring through selection is negative in that it attempts to
eliminate applicants, leaving only the best to be placed in the firm.

Recruitment is the
process of finding and attracting 
capable applicants  for
employment.  The process  begins when new recruits are sought and ends
when their applications are submitted. The result is a pool of applicant  from which new employees are selected.

Recruiting is a
process  of generating a pool of
qualified applicants for organizational jobs. 

     Recruitment is a
form of business competition and it is a fiercely competitive . just as
corporations compete to develop, manufacture and market the best product or
service, so they must also compete to identify, attract and hire  the most qualified people. Recruitment is a
business, and it is a big business. It demands serious attention from
management, for any business strategy will falter without the talent to execute
it. 

Certainly, the range of recruitment need is broad . a small
manufacturer in a well populated area faces recruitment challenges that are far
different from those of technology firm operating in a global market. Both need
talent, although different types of talent to be successful in their respective
market. 




NATURE OF RECRUITMENT
PROCESS:

 In order to initiate
the procedure for hiring, we must satisfy three preliminary requirements. 

There
     must be authority to hire, which comes from employment requisition, as
     developed through analysis of work load and work force. 
we
     must have a standard of personal with which we can compare perspective
     employees. This is represented by job specification, as developed through
     job analysis.
Finally,
     we must have job applicants from whom we can select the person to be
     hired. 





RECRUITMENT A
TWO WAY PROCESS:

Recruitment frequently is treated
as if it were a one way process – something organization do to search for
prospective employees. This  approach may
be termed as prospecting theory of
recruitment. In practice, however, prospective employees  seek out 
organization just as organization 
seeks them out. This view, 
termed, a mating  theory of 
recruitment  appears more
realistic.  Recruitment success  from the organization’s perspective  and job search  success 
from the  candidate’s  prespective 
both depend  on timing. If there
is a match between  organizational  recruitment efforts and  a candidate’s 
job search  efforts, conditions
are ripe for two to meet.

In order for organizations and
candidates to meet, however three other conditions must be satisfied.




1.      There must be  a common
communication medium e.g. the organization advertise  in a trade journal read by the candidate.

2.      The  candidate perceive a
match between his/her personal characteristics and the organization’s stated
job requirements.

3.      The candidate is motivated to apply for the job.




























































































































FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT:

1)Strategic  and Human Resource Plans:

 Strategic  plans point out the direction of the
firm  and suggest the types of tasks and
jobs that needs to be undertaken. The HR plans outlines which job should be
filled by recruiting outside the firm and which are to be filled internally. 




2) Organization
Image:

 A prospective
candidate may not be interested in persuing job opportunities in the particular
organization. The image of the organization therefore, can be potential
constraint. A poor image may limit its attraction to applicants. 

3) Job
Attractiveness:

 If the position to be
filled is unattractive job , recruiting a large and qualified pool of
applicants will be difficult. In a job market where unemployment rates are low
, and where  wide range of opportunities
creates a competition for these workers a shortage results. Moreover, job
viewed  as boring, hazardous, anxiety
creating , low paying  or  lacking in promotional  seldom attract a qualified pool of
applicants.




4) Recruiters Habit:

 A recruiter’s past
success can lead to certain habits. Admittedly , habits can eliminate time
consuming decision that yield  the same
answer, but habits may also continue past mistake or avoid more affective
alternatives. 

5) Cost:

 The cost of
identifying and attracting recruits is an ever present  limitation. 

6) Organizational
Policies:

 Organizational
policies are used to achieve uniformity, economics, public relations , benefits
and other objective that may be unrelated to recruiting. At times policies can
be a source of constraints. 

a)      compensation policies :

pay policies are a common
constraints faced by recruiters. Organization establish pay ranges for
different jobs to ensure equitable wages and salaries. Recruiter seldom have
the authority to exceed the stated pay range. Of course, pay ranges must be
adjusted for special cases such as international openings. Applying domestic
compensation rates over seas often entails over paying or under paying foreing
nationals compared with what they would normally earn.

b)      Employment Status Policies:

 Some companies have
policies on hiring part time  and
temporary employees . Although there is growing interest in hiring these types
of workers, policies can cause recruiters to reject all, but those seeking full
time work.limitations on part time and temporary employees reduce the pool of
potential applicants. 




c)      International Hiring Policy:

Policies may also require that forieng jobs be staffed with
local citizens. The use of host country forign nationals reduces relocation
expenses , lessen the likely hood of 
nationalization and if top jobs are held by local citizens minimizes
charges of economic exploitation. Unlike relocated employees , foreign
nationals are apt to be involved in the local community and understand local
custom and business practices.




d)      Promote from Within Policies:




Promote from within policies give present employees the
first opportunity for job opening. These policies may limit  the recruiter in many ways. They may require
the recruiter to search within the company before looking else where for
recruits. If an internal search must be completed before recruiting outside the
firm can begin, filling job openings will be delayed when internal candidates
are unsuitable. Even if, internal candidates are acceptable, the pool of
potential applicants is likely to be smaller in the case when internal and
external channels are used. Hard choices often must be made when internal
recruitment involves the eventual selection of one co worker in preference to
another. ; attendant morale and motivation issues may surround such decisions.

 7)ENVIROMENTAL CONDITIONS:

External conditions strongly influence recruitment . the
unemployment rate, spot shortages in specific skills, labor law and the
recruiting activities of other employers all affect recruiter’s efforts. 




RECRUITMENT CHANNELS:

Advantages of  internal source                                Disadvantages of  internal source 




Fimilarity with own employee                                    Limited
choice

Better use of talent                                                      Discourage
competition

Economical recruitment                                              Stagnation
of skills

Improve morale                                                          Create
conflicts

A motivator




Advantages of
external source                                 Disadvantages
of external source

Open process                                                              Expensive
and time consuming 

Availability of talented candidates                             Discourages  the existing 
employees

Opportunity  to select the 
best candidate                  Unfimilarity
with the organization

Provides healthy competition




RECRUITMENT POLICIES:

1)     
Passive Nondiscrimination:

It is a commitment to treat 
all races and both sexes 
equally  in all decisions about
hiring, promotion, and pay. No attempt 
is made to recruit actively among prospective minority applicants.  This posture fails  to recognize that discriminatory  practices 
in the past may  block prospective
applicants  from seeking  present 
job opportunities. 

2)     
Pure Diversity-based Recruitment:

It is concerted effort by the
organization actively to expand the pool of applicants so that no one is
excluded  because  of past or present discrimination. However,
the decision to hire or to promote  is
based on the best qualified 
individual,  regardless of race or
sex.

3)Diversity based  recruitment
with preferential hiring:

It goes further than pure  diversity based  recruitment. It systematically favors women
and minorities in hiring  and promotion
decisions. This is a “soft quota” system.

1)     
Hard Quotas:

it represents a mandate to hire or promote specific numbers
or proportions of women or minority group members.













THE NATURE AND CHALLENGE
OF  PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT:

At one time in our history , “liking people” appeared to be
sufficient  for choosing  to work in the field  known as personnel management.  Preferring 
to work with  humans  rather than objects  is still important.  But it is 
grossly  insufficient  in fields of endeavor. Not only must  the firm’s requirements for an effective   work force be  met, 
the personnel  manager must be
generally  concerned  with the expectations  of both employees  and society 
in general.  Society  at large has proclaimed  its human resources  to have vital needs that move  beyond a “ work force”  status. The employee is simultaneously  an 
instrument   of the firm, a human
being,  and a citizen.

The role  of the
personnel  manager  has 
thus changed  through time. At
first,  the  dominant 
role was to satisfy  top
management  in procuring and maintaining  a work force 
that  would  be instrumental  to organizational  productivity. 
As knowledge expanded  in
executing this role. The manager began to understand  the necessity for  ascertaining 
and accommodating to the needs  of
the human beings who  constituted that
work force.  He or she constantly
searched  for that  program 
which would support  the
accomplishment  of both  organizational  and individual  objectives. 
The job was made more  difficult
by such factors  as the rise  of the modern 
labor union,  the increasing  educational 
level of societal  members,  the increasing  size and complexity  of the organization  and its technology   and the insistent  and sometimes violent   demands of less privileged segments of our
society.  This  last- named factor  has led to the final major   alteration of the personnel  manager’s 
role. Though  society
“permits”  and encourages  the use of its citizens as means to  organizational  ends. The fact that  they constitute   an instrumental  work force in no way detracts  from the fact that they are 

1)      human beings  with
certain  inalienable rights, 

2)      society’s citizens  with
assigned  rights and privileges.

CHANNELS OF RECRUITMENT:

INTERNAL SOURCES OF CANDIDATES

JOB POSTING PROGRAMS:

HR departments become involved  when internal job openings are publicized to  employees  through job-posting   programs, which inform employees about openings and  required qualifications and invite  qualified  employees to apply.  The notices  usually are  posted  on company bulletin boards  or electronic bulletin boards  or are placed in the company  newspaper.
The purpose  of job posting  is to encourage  employees to seek promotions and transfers that  help the HR department  fill internal openings and   meet employees’ personal objectives.  Not all job openings  are posted. Besides  entry level  positions, senior management   and top staff positions  may be filled by merit or with external  recruiting. Job posting is most common for   lower level  clerical , technical and supervisory positions. Although affirmative action plans   suggest trend toward posting even  higher level management jobs.

DEPARTING EMPLOYEES:
A buyback occurs  when an employee  resigns to take another job  and the original outbids the new job offer.

WALK-INS AND WRITE-INS:
 Walk-ins are job seekers who arrive   at  the HR department  , in search  of a  job:  write-ins are  those who send  a written inquiry.  Both groups are normally asked to complete an application blank to determine their  interests and abilities . usable applications are kept in an active file  until a suitable  opening occurs or until an application is too old to be considered valid, usually six months.

EMPLOYEE REFERRAL:
Employees may refer job seekers  to HR department  . employee referral have several advantages.  First, employees  with hard-to-find job  skills may know other who do the   same work. Second,  new recruits already know something  about the organization from the employees  who referred  them thus referred applicants may be more strongly attracted to the organization than are causal walk-ins.  Third,  employees tend to refer their  friends who are likely to have similar work habits  and attitudes. Even if their work values are different, these candidates may have a strong desire to work hard  so that  they do not  embarrass  the person who recommended them. 

ADVERTISING:
 Want ads describe the job and the benefits, identify the employer, and tell those who are interested how to apply. They are the most familiar  form of employment advertising. For highly specialized recruits ads may be placed  in professional journals or out of town newspaper in areas with high concentrations of desired skills. 
Want ads  have severe limitations. They  may attract thousands of job seekers for one popular job opening. Or few may apply for less attractive job s. for example,  few people apply for door-to-door sales job if they know the product is vacuum cleaners or encyclopedias. Likewise, the ideal recruits are probably already employed and not reading want ads. Finally, secret advertising  for a recruit to replace an incumbent  cannot be done with traditional  want ads. These limitations are avoided  through the  use of blind ads. A blind ad  is a want ad  that does not identify  the employer , interested  applicants are told to send their resumes  to the mailbox number at  the post office or to the  news paper, a resume, which  is a brief summary  of an applicants background, is then forwarded  to the employer. These ads allow  the opening to remain confidential , prevent  countless  telephone inquiries, and avoid the public relation problems of disappointed  recruits. An advertisement that is written too narrowly  may limit the pool of applicants: one written too broadly  may attract applicants for the firm to be able to evaluate them effectively.
STATE EMPLOYEMENT  SECURITY AGENCY:
Every state government  has a state employment security  agency. Often called the unemployment  office or  the employment service,  this  agency matches  job seekers with job openings. 

PRIVATE PLACEMENT AGENCIES:
 Private  placement agencies which exist in every major metropolitan area  arose to help employers  find capable  applicants.  They take  an employers request for recruits  and then solicit   job seekers , usually through  advertising  or walk-ins.  Candidates are pre-screened, matched  with employer’s  requests,  and then told to report to the employer’s HR  department  for an interview. The matching process conducted by private agencies varies widely. Some  placement services carefully prescreen  applicants : others simply provide a stream of applicants and let the HR department do most of the screening.

PROFESSIONAL SEARCH FIRMS:
 Professional  search firms are much more  specialized  than placement agencies. Search firms usually recruit  only specific  type of human  resources for fee paid  by the employer. For example, some search firm specialize  in executive  talent, while others find technical and scientific  personnel. Perhaps  the most significant difference between search firm and  placement agencies  is the approach  taken. Placement agencies hope to attract applicants through advertising but search firms actively seek out recruits  among the employees of other companies.


 EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION:
 Many educational institutions offer current students and alumni placement assistance. Although some applicants sought through educational institutions are experienced, many are not. And new entrants are more likely  to be swayed  by the recruiters manner and behavior during  the interview than by the attributes of the job, which appears to the deciding  factor for experienced workers.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION:
 Professional groups of engineers, accountants, trainers, and others often maintain placement rosters and hold job fairs, especially at annual conventions.

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS:
 Many people with trade skills, such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians and others in the construction trades , use the local union as the source of job reference. 

MILITARY OPERATIONS:
Many communities are located near military basis, which have trained people leaving every day. Mechanics, welders, pilots, heavy equipment operators, and a wide range of other skilled workers can be found through this recruitment channels. 
INTERNET RECRUITMENT:
Organizations started using computers as a recruiting tool, by advertising jobs on a bulletin board service . From which prospective applicant would contact employers. Several different methods are used for internet recruiting. The most common ones are 
1. job boards
2. professional / career websites
3. employer websites

HR PLANNING PROCESS:

HR planning process begins with considering the organizational objectives and strategies. The HR plan is guided by larger term organizational plan. For example, in planning for HR, an organization must consider the allocation of people to job over larger period of time, not just for the next month or even the next year.  This level of planning requires knowledge of strategic expansion or reduction in operation and any technological change that may affect the organization. On  the basis of  such analyses plans can be made for shifting  employees  within the organization, laying off or otherwise  cutting back  the number of employees,  retraining  present employees  or increasing   the number of  employees  in certain areas. Factors to consider include the current employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities in the organization and the expected vacancies resulting from retirement, promotions, transfer or discharge.
HR plan provides a road map for the future, identifying where employees are likely to be obtained, when employees will be needed and what training and development of employees must occur. 
The various activities involved in the process of HR planning are as follow.
1. Analyzing organizational plans and objectives. The process of HR planning begins with analyzing the overall plans and objectives of organization. It stems from business plan. Analysis of business plan into sub sectional and functional plans such as technology, production finance, marketing, expansion and diversification provides for assessing the HR requirements for each activity in each section and department. 
2. Analyzing Objectives of HR Planning: The main purpose of HR planning is matching employee’s abilities to enterprise requirements, with emphasis on future, instead of present arrangement. The ultimate purpose of HR planning is to relate future human resource to future enterprise  need so as to maximize  the future  return on   investment in human resources. For  this  managers need  to specify  the HR planning  with regard to the utilization of HR in the organization. While  developing  specific  objectives of HR planning  certain questions need to be  addressed. 
• Whether  the vacancies,  as and when these arise  will be  filled in by promotions , transfer or from external sources?
• What will be the selection procedure?
• How will provisions be made for training and development employees?

How to  restructure job  positions i.e. how to abolish the old or boring jobs  and replace these by challenging ones?
How to downsize the organization I the light of  changing  business and industrial environment?
3. Fore casting demand for HR: The demand  for the HR  in an organization is subject to vary from time to time,  depending upon both external and internal factors.

EXTERNAL    ORGANIZATIONAL   WORKFORCE
 Economics   Strategic Plans    Retirement
SSocio-ploitical legal  Budgets    Resignation
Technology   Sales and production forecasts Termination
Competitors   New  Ventures    deaths
    Organization and  job design  leaves of  absence.

SCANNING GOVERNMENT INFLUENCES:
A major  element that affect labor supply and therefore  HR planning  is the government. Today HR managers are confronted with many  government regulations. As a  result  HR planning  must be done  by  individuals  who understand the legal requirements of various government  regulations especially firms operating globally. 
Tax  legislation  at local, state and federal levels  also affects HR planning. Pension provision and social security legislation may change retirement patterns and funding options. 

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS:
 The general business cycle of recession and economic booms also affects HR planning. Factors such as  interest rates, inflation and economic growth affect the availability of workers and should figure  into organizational and HR plans and objectives. Decisions on wages, overtime and hiring or laying off workers may be affected by economic conditions. E.g. economic conditions  lead to decrease in  the unemployment  rate. There is a considerable difference between finding qualified applicants in a 3% unemployment market and in a 7% unemployment market. In the 3% unemployment market , significantly fewer qualified  applicants are  likely to be available  for any kind  of position. Applicant still available may be less employable because  they are less educated , less skilled  or unwilling to work. 

GEOGRAPHIC  AND COMPETITIVE CONCERNS:
 Employer  must consider the following geographic and competitive  concerns in marking the HR  plan, including  other employers in the area , employee resistance  to geographic  relocation,  direct competition in the industry  and the impact  of international competition . the net  migration into a particular region is important also. 
Other employer in a geographic region can greatly expand or diminish the labor supply. 
Direct  competitors are another important  external force  in HR  planning. Failure to consider  the competitive labor market and to offer pay scales and benefits competitive in the same general industry and geographic  location may cost a company dearly in the long run. 
Finally, impact of international competition as well as numerous other factors must be considered as a part of scanning environment. Global competition for labor intensifies as global competitors shift workers and jobs around the world. 

TECHNOLOGY:
Changes are difficult to predict and assess but may radically alter strategic and therefore HR plans. Many thought the computer would cause mass unemployment.  Today the computer field is a large one, employing millions of people directly or indirectly.  Technology complicates HR planning because it tends to reduce employment in one department while increasing it another.

ORGANIZATIOANAL DECISIONS:
 As organizations respond to these changes in their environment, decisions are made to modify the strategic plan. The strategic plan commits the firm to long range objectives such as growth rates and new products, markets or services.  These objectives dictate the number and type of employees needed in the future. 
Budget increases or cut are the most significant short term influence on HR needs.
New venture mean changing the HR demand. When a new venture is begun internally, the lead time allows planners to develop short run and long run employment plans. But new ventures begun through acquisition and mergers cause an immediate revision of HR demands and can lead to a new organization and job design.

WORKFORCE FACTORS:
 Demand is modified by employee actions such as retirements, resignations, terminations deaths and leave of absence. Changes in the composition of work force combined with the use of different work patterns have created workforce and organization that are notable different from those of a decade ago. Many organizations face major concerns about having sufficient workers with the necessary capabilities and the flexibility to expand and contract the workforce as needed. 
The use of part time employees can add flexibility through temporary or more permanent arrangements. To address those concerns organizations are implementing flexible staffing arrangements that include temporary workers, job sharing, part time and   outsourcing. These arrangements are used to meet workload fluctuations, replace an absent employee, and work on project with a definite end point and as a way to preview whether an employee might work out well before formal hiring.

FORECASTING SUPPLY OF HUMAN RESOURCES:
 Having forecast HR demand, the next task involved in HR planning is to forecast human resource supply. There are two sources of supply; internal and external. The internal supply consists of present employees who can be promoted, transferred or demoted to fill expected openings.  The external supply consists of people who do not work for the organization. 
Estimation of internal supply of HR involves more than merely counting the number of employees. Planners audit the present workforce to learn about   their capabilities. This information allows these planners to estimate tentatively which openings can be filled by present employees. These tentative assignments usually are recorded on a replacement chart. 
Audits and replacement charts are also important additions to the information base of the HR department. With greater knowledge of employees, the department can plan recruiting, training and career planning activities more effectively. 

HUMAN RESOURCE AUDIT:
 It summarizes each employee’s skill, knowledge and abilities. Audits of non managers are skill inventories. Audit of managers are known as management inventories. 
A skill inventory form is divided into four parts. 
Part 1 can be completed by Hr department from employee records it identifies the employee’s job titles, experience, age and previous job.
Part 2 seeks information about the skills, duties, responsibilities and education of the worker. The employees’ future potential is briefly summarized by the immediate superior in part 3. Performance, readiness for promotion, and any deficiencies are noted here. The supervisor’s signature helps ensure that the accuracy of form is reviewed by someone who knows the employee better than the HR specialist. 
Part 4 added as a final check for completeness and for the addition of recent employee evaluation.
Replacement charts are a visual representation of who will replace whom if there is a job opening. The chart much, like an organization chart, depicts the various jobs in the organization and shows the status of likely candidates. Replacement status consists of two variables. Present performance and promo ability .present performance is determined largely from supervisory evaluation.  The opinions of other managers, peers and other subordinates may contribute to the appraisal of present performance. Future promo ability is based primarily on present performance and estimates by immediate superiors of future success in a new job. 

SUCCESSION PLANNING:
 It is a process of identifying a larger term plan for orderly replacement of key employees. Given complexities and time demands involve in developing these plans, succession planning is usually limited to key employees and those identified as having long term potential. 

LABOR MARKET ANALYSIS:
 Success in finding new employees depends on the labor market and the skills of managers and employment specialist in the HR department. The relevant labor market is the market from which the organization recruits; its size depends upon the skills being sought. For highly skilled job, the relevant labor market may be the entire country. The labor market for unskilled jobs is generally the local community.

MATCHING DEMANDS AND SUPPLY:
 Once demand for and supply of HR of an organization is forecast, the two needs to be reconciled.  Such reconciliation will reveal either shortage or surplus of HR in future. Accordingly action plans will be prepared to meet the situation. In case of shortage of HR. This will be met through recruitment, transfer, promotions training and development, retention. 
In case of surplus of HR, it can be made through schemes like redeployment. Voluntary retirement through golden hand shake. 

MONITORING AND CONTROL:
 The final step involved in HR planning is monitoring and control. Once the action plans are implemented these needs to be reviewed, regulated, and monitored against set standards. Monitoring of action plans and programs help reveal deficiency.