THEORYTICAL ASPECTS

Recruitment and selection can play a pivotally important role in shaping an organization’s
effectiveness and performance, if work organizations are able to acquire workers who already
possess relevant knowledge, skills and aptitudes and are able to make an accurate prediction
regarding their future abilities. Recruitment and selection also has an important role to play in
ensuring worker performance and positive organizational outcomes. It is often claimed that
selection of workers occurs not just to replace departing employees or add to a workforce but
rather aims to put in place workers who can perform at a high level and demonstrate
commitment (Ballantyne, 2009).
Recruitment and selection forms a core part of the central activities underlying human
resource management: namely, the acquisition, development and reward of workers. It
frequently forms an important part of the work of human resource managers – or designated
specialists within work organizations. It is the human resources that give competitive edge”
and therefore should be selected carefully and developed in order to achieve employees‟
commitment (Storey, 1995).
Mullins (2010), for the Human Resource Management (HRM) function to remain effective,
there must be consistently good levels of teamwork, plus ongoing co-operation and
consultation between line managers and the HR manager. This is most definitely the case in
recruitment and selection as specialist HR managers (or even external consultants) can be an
important repository of up-to-date knowledge and skills, for example on the important legal
dimensions of this area.
Development (CIPD, 2009a), concluded that organizations should increasingly be inclusive
in their employment offering as younger generations have grown up with the notion of
flexible working, while older people have an interest in flexible working as an alternative to
retirement.
Boxall, Purcell and Wright (2007), highlight five different questions an organization has to
answer to have an effective recruitment strategy in order to pursue its survival and success.
Those questions are “Whom to recruit?”, “Where to recruit?”, “What recruitment sources to
use?”, “When to recruit?” and “What message to communicate?” The notion of effectiveness
in this study relates to the manner by which organizations implements its employment
policies. The essence is to understand whether such policies are applied appropriately in the
way they have been designed.
The focus of recruitment and selection according to Montgomery (1996), is on matching the
capabilities and inclinations of prospective candidates against the demands and rewards
inherent in a given job.
Odiorne (1984), postulated that the quality of recruitment practices put in place by an
organization is a function of the quantity of application that will be received; he stated further
that the relative effectiveness of the next human resources phase (selection) is inherently
dependent upon the quality of applicant attracted.
Odiorne (1984), added that the result of effective recruitment and selection are the reduction
on labor turnover, good employee morale and improves organization performance. According
to Armstrong (2006), the aim is to obtain, at a minimum cost, the number of suitable and
qualified candidates to satisfy the needs of the organization. The organization attracts
candidates by means of identifying, evaluating and using the most appropriate sources of
applicants.
Another scholar Jovanovic (2004), augured that recruitment is a process of attracting a great
pool of high quality applicants to select the best among them. In “past practice in personnel
management in the Nigeria civil service: issues and procedures” detained recruitment as the
process which starts from getting an applicant interested enough in a job and in a particular
organization to write an application and the process stops when his application has been
received in the organization.
Bratton and Gold (2007), differentiate the two terms while establishing a clear link between
them by stating that recruitment is the process of generating a pool of capable candidates to
apply for employment to an organization. Whereas, Selection is the process by which
managers use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants, a person or persons
more likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements.
Recruitment and selection forms a central part of the fundamental activities underlying talent
management, namely, acquisition, development and reward of employees. It often forms an
important part of the work of human resource managers – or designated specialists within
work organizations.
According to Storey (1995), it is the human resources that give a competitive edge to the
enterprise and therefore should be selected carefully and must be developed constantly so that
they remain committed and aligned to the goals of the organization. However, recruitment
and selection decisions are often for good reason taken by non HR specialists i.e. the line
managers (Costello, 2006). Therefore, it is the accountability of all managers even where
human resource departments exist that the right candidates are selected for the job roles. The
Human Resource (HR) managers in most of the organizations play more of a supporting
advisory role in recruitment &the selection process for those people who will supervise or in
other ways work with the newly appointed employee/ employees.
According to Edwin B. Flippo, (1979) “Recruitment is the process of searching the
candidates for employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization”.
Raymond J. Stone (2005) defines recruitment as the process of ‘seeking and attracting a
pool of applicants from which qualified candidates for job vacancies within an organization
can be selected.
According to Costello (2006) recruitment is described as the set of activities and processes
used to legally obtain a sufficient number of qualified people at the right place and time so
that the people and the organization can select each other in their own best short and long
term interests.
The principal disadvantages of internal recruitment have limited choice of talent available in
the organization as it evades the arrival of fresh candidates. There may be far better external
candidates who have more experience and better qualifications (Sunderland & Canwell,
2008) to suit the position in question. Another problem with internal sourcing is that the
existing employees, whether competent or not, will feel that they have an automatic right to
be given a more senior post (Sunderland & Canwell, 2008). Besides above, external
sources of recruitment, refer to attracting applicants from outside the organization to fill
vacant positions. Like internal sources, they are also equally beneficial in attracting
competent applicants for advertised positions. Broad varieties of methods are in use for
external recruitment such as advertisement, e-recruitment, employee referrals, employment
agencies, labor office, education and training establishment (Beardwell, 2007; Cober &
Brown, 2006). Of all the above e- recruitment or recruitment using social media like
Facebook, linked in etc. and employee referrals are most widely used methods by the modern
organizations. E-recruitment: or online recruitment uses web-based tools such as a firm’s
public internet site or its own intranet to recruit staff and carrying out the processes of
attracting, screening and tracking applicants, selecting, and offering jobs or rejecting
candidates online.
Cappelli (2001), has estimated it that it costs only about one-twentieth, as much to hire
someone online. Further use of digital platforms such as Facebook and Linked-In gives the
real time information on the candidate for the organization, for which the dependency till date
was only on reference checks.
Amos et al. (2004), as well as Mathis and Jackson (2006), define selection as the process of
picking the most suitable applicants. The process, according to them, is guided by
predetermined selection criteria such as job descriptions, job specifications and job profiling
and begins after the recruitment process has been accomplished.
Robbins et al. (2001), point out that the objective of the selection process is to match the
applicant’s ‟ability, knowledge, skills and experience with job requirements in a fair and
legal manner. Further the Managers who are involved in hiring employees need to
comprehend the skills and abilities that are required in a particular job and thus finalize upon
the candidates that have those required capabilities. Interviews, reference checks, tests,
applications and résumés can all help identify differences among candidates. Managers can
make their selection decisions with a fuller awareness of the applicants‟ strengths and
weaknesses (Tjosvold and Newman, 2003).
Interviews are virtually used by all organizations for selection purposes. In support of this,
Newell and Tansley (2001), indicate that interviews are by far the most widely used
personnel selection procedures. With the use of interviews, managers of organizations get an
opportunity to meet the applicants directly. The interview also provides the applicants with an
opportunity to also learn more about the public institution. The purpose of the selection
interview is to gather as much information and to use such information to arrive at a selection
decision (Redman & Wilkinson, 2001:31).

During the interview, panel members (interviewers) normally pose questions to which the
interviewee is expected to respond. Responses to the questions are often captured by means
of scores as determined the interviewers. The applicant that obtains the highest score is
recommended for appointment (Wilkinson, 2001:32). Because of interview ambiguity,
efforts must be made to ensure that all interviewees are being asked the same questions
(Gomez-Majia et al., 2004:175).
Once that “right” person has been employed, the corporation has to ensure that the right
remuneration and incentives are also put in place for the employee so that he/ she remains
motivated in his new workplace. Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD, 2009a), concluded that organizations should increasingly be inclusive
in their employment offering as the younger generations have grown up with the notion of
flexible working, while older people have an interest in flexible working as an alternative to
retirement.
2.2 Recruitment
Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and selecting qualified people for
a job at an organization or firm. For some components of the recruitment process, mid- and
large-size organizations often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process
to recruitment agencies.
The recruitment has five main types of agencies: employment agencies, recruitment websites
and job search engines, "headhunters" for executive and professional recruitment, niche
agencies which specialize in a particular area of staffing, or employer branding strategy and
in-house recruitment. The stages in recruitment include sourcing candidates by advertising or
other methods, and screening and selecting potential candidates using tests or interviews.

Recruitment is the premier major steps in the selection process in an Organization. It has
been explained as an activity directed to obtain appropriate human resources whose
qualifications and skills match functions of the relevant posts in the Organization. Its
importance cannot be over-emphasized and can also be best described as the ‘heart’ of the
organization.
Whenever a company or organization is in dire need to fulfill the forthcoming vacancies;
need of the Recruitment process occurs to attract potential individuals. If we broaden the
horizon of this particular definition – Recruitment theory basically leads to the progression of
finding & locating the righteous individuals who contains sufficient qualification & skill sets
to satisfy the vacant positions in most well-timed and efficient manner.
According to Yoder, “Recruitment is the process to discover the sources of manpower to
meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting
that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of an effective
workforce.” (RECRUITMENT -HUMAN RESOURCE).
In words of Edwin B. Flippo, “Recruitment is the process of searching the candidates for
employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization.” (RECRUITMENT
- HUMAN RESOURCE).
Recruitment is a constant process which firms don't only apply to fill required vacancies; it
also works as a support tool to establish a pool of potential candidates for future manpower
support. Usually the process starts from: Vacancy scheming, Requisition, Attracting possible
candidates through various medium, i.e. Advertisement, Newspaper Ad etc. and ends with
Application Submission.

2.3 SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT:

It is essential to organization that develops the different sources of recruitment, when the
organization is successful in gathering a large application pool, it can adopt a rigorous
procedure in choosing the best employees without compromising on quality. However, there
is no single combination of resources and methods that will work well for all organization.
The various sources of recruitment can be broadly classified into two categories:

 Internal Recruitment
 External Recruitment.

Most organizations depend upon both the sources. The relative emphases may differ from
enterprise to enterprise depending upon the following factors:

1. Training programme of the enterprise whether it prefers trained persons or wants fresh
candidates to be trained by itself.
2. The level of specialization and training required for employees.
3. Management policy towards recruitment whether it prefers internal or external
sources.
4. The need for originality and initiative required from employees.
5. Trade union’s attitude towards management’s recruitment policy.
2.3.1 Internal Sources: Internal sources of recruitment consist of personnel already
working in the enterprise. Many organizations fill job vacancies through promotions and
transfer of existing staff and it also refers to filling pen jobs with the current employees of the
organization. It is a process designed to create sufficient interest among the current
employees to cause them to formally indicate an interest I a given position. The position
applied for may represent a promotion, transfer or even demotion in the organization.

Internal sources: The main sources of internal recruitment are as follows;

1. Present Employee: The most common source of internal recruitment is through

existing employees of organization. Generally, the organization maintains the
inventories of qualifications to choose employees for suitable vacancies. The usual
method of creating a pool of internal application through job posting. The evaluate job
opportunities relative to their skill, experience, interests and career goal. Promotions
and transfers from present employees are example of internal sources of recruitment.

2. Employees Referrals: It is also a good source of internal recruitment. Employee

develops good prospects for their families and friends by acquainting them with the
advantages of a job with the company furnishing letters of introduction and even
encouraging them to apply. This source is an effective source of recruiting because
many qualified people are reached at a very low cost to the organization. A major
limitation of employee’s referrals is that the referred individuals are likely to be
similar in type to those who are already working in the organization.

3. Former Employees: Former employees are another internal source of recruitment.

Some retired employees may be willing to come back to work on a part time basis or
recommend someone who would be interested in working for the company.
Sometimes people who have left the company for some reason or the other are willing
to come back and work. An advantage of this source is that the performance of these
people is already known.

2.3.2External Sources:
The main sources of external recruitment are as follows;

1. Advertising: Advertising in newspapers and journals is the most popular source of

recruitment from outside. It is a very convenient and economical method for different
types of personnel. Detailed information can be given in the advertisement to facilitate
self-screening by the candidates. If necessary, the enterprise can keep its identity
secret by giving a post box number.

2. Educational Institutions: Universities, colleges and institutes of higher education

have become a popular source of recruitment of recruitment for engineers, scientists,.
Management trainees, technicians, etc. Business concerns may hold campus
interviews and select students for final interview at their offices. Universities and
institutes generally run placement bureaus to assist in recruiting students. But
educational institutions provide only young and inexperienced candidates.

3. Personnel Consultants: A consulting firm is a specialized agency which helps client

companies in recruiting personnel. .It serves as an intermediary between the enterprise
and the job-seekers. On a requisition form a client company, it advertises the vacancy
and receives applications. It may pass on the applications to the client company or
may conduct tests and interview of the candidates, It charges fee from the client
company. This source is generally used for recruiting executives.
 4. Jobbers and Contractors: These are sources of recruitment for unskilled and manual
labour. They have close links with towns and villages for this purpose.

5. Employment Exchanges: Public employment exchanges are important sources of

recruitment of personnel. Job seekers register their names with these exchanges.
Employers notify job vacancies to these exchanges that pass on the names of suitable
candidates to the employers.

6. Leasing: This method is often used by public sectors organizations. Under it

personnel from civil services, defense services and private sector are employed for
specific periods due to shortage of managerial personnel.

7. Unsolicited Applicants: Due to unemployment problem in India business concerns

receive a large number of unsolicited candidates at the main gate or through mail.
Such jobseekers may be considered for causal vacancies or for preparing a waiting list
for future use.

2.4 Steps of Recruitment

There are various steps followed by an organization to recruit qualified employees for the
achievement of objectives. The steps are as follows:

1. Assessment of the job: The first step of recruitment of employees is proper

assessment of the job. Whether the work is difficult or 'normal, experience is required
or not. What qualities are needed for work to be done? When the work will be started?
All these things are to be assessed for a job.

2. Requisition: After assessment of the job, candidate seeking department gives

requisition of human resource to the top management. After getting the requisition
from the departmental heads, top management assesses the proposal and last of all if it
is seen reasonable and acceptable, top management issues order for advertisement.

3. Inviting application: After the assessment of requisition proposal of vacant jobs, the
next step of recruitment is attracting applicants through advertisement. The
advertisement includes name of position, nature of the work, qualities required for the
job, age, educational qualification, experience, expected salary etc.

4. Receiving applications: In the advertisement, potentials job candidates are asked to

submit their applications along with their resume and other necessary documents. In
response to the advertisement, job candidates apply for the vacant positions and
human resource or assigned department receive the application.

5. Spot interview: In case of urgent need, some organizations need manpower for
implementing plans or strategies. For the purpose they cannot wait for regular
recruitment or selection. Organizational managers, under this circumstance, visit the
sources of manpower and recruit on the spot.
2.5 Characteristics of a Good Recruitment Policy:
A good recruitment policy is the guiding can save an organization from facing situations like
unproductive test and interview due to non-availability of the right candidate in the applicant pool,
compromising on the selection of good candidates, high attrition rate low productivity and low
motivation among existing employees as a result of faulty policy.6The success of an enterprise
largely depends upon the ability and efficiency of its employees. To get the capable and efficient
employees, the recruitment policy of the organization must be very sound. An ideal recruitment
policy must have following characteristics:

1. All selections must be made at a central place of the enterprise.

2. The whole process of recruitment must be strictly in accordance with the merit.

3. The number of employees to be recruited must be determined well in advance according to

the need of enterprise.

4. No such assurance should be given at the time of recruitment which may not be followed

later on.

5. Higher posts must be filled up through promotions, so far as possible.

6. The qualification experience, terms of service, salaries etc. must be determined well in

advance.

7. The selection of employees must be accordance with the merit.

8. The abilities of employees must be according to the need of their jobs.

9. New posts must be authorized by a higher officer.

10. Recruitment policy must be fair and flexible.

2.6 The Process/Model of Recruitment
It is a process of discovering the people for vacant post. It involves recruitment planning,
job analysis and balancing between demand and supply of human resources. The last
stage of the process is selection. The figure below shows the process of recruitment and
the idea has taken from the book Human Resource Management by Byers and Rue.
There are 1. (Seven) components of recruitment process/model as follows:

Fig: The Process/Model of Recruitment

1. Human resource planning: HRP focuses the whole process. It spells how
recruitment process will be administered. What sources will be exploited is also an
important aspect of a, good HRP.

2. Job analysis: It is a systematic exploration of the. Activities within a job. It is a

technical process used to define the duties, responsibilities and accountabilities of
a job.

3. Nature of job: For 'recruitment purpose-the employer should know about the
nature of job. Not only the requirements of a specific job, should it also be kept in
mind for making the process a success.

4. Filling the job: The employer should have intention to fill the vacancies. How
many positions are vacant just now and how many will, fall vacant in near future
that can be identified, and then number of employees may be recruited.

5. Recruitment: In the fifth aspect of the recruitment process-of HRM search the
sources of recruitment, a) internal sources and b) external source. Both the sources
can be used at the same time.

6. Pool of qualified applicants: There are many applicants in the labor market. But
all are not eligible for the post. Only efficient employees can be selected.
 7. Selection: It is the last stage of the process. It follows a standard pattern,
beginning with an initial screening interview and concluding with the final
employment decision.

From the above discussion we can get a clear idea about the recruitment process.
Any HRM can make the recruitment process a success, if all these aspects are
considered.

2.7 Selection

Once the potential applicants are identified, the next step is to evaluate their
qualification, qualities, experiences, capabilities etc. & make the selection. It is the
process of offering jobs to the desired applicants. Selection means choosing a few from
those who apply, It is picking up of applicants or candidates with requisite qualifications
and qualities to fill jobs in the organization.
The process of interviewing and evaluating candidates for a specific job and selecting an
individual for employment based on certain criteria. Employee selection can range from
a very simple process to a very complicated process depending on the firm hiring and the
position. Certain employment laws such as anti-discrimination laws must be obeyed
during employee selection.

Selection process starts from screening the CV‟s to joining procedure. Basically it refers
to putting right person to the right place to work on. If correct selection occurs,
organization will go through less absenteeism and turnover rate will lower down.

Requirement Prerequisites:

Need on
Planned Forecasted
Demand

1. Planned:
Need which upsurges according to Organization Rules & Policy and also based
on the Retirement viewpoint.
2. Forecasted:
Needs which upsurges due to Internal & External forecasting; pattern an
organization can envisage by studying the business trends.
3. Need on Demand:
Need which upsurges to fulfill unforeseen incidences, i.e. Sudden Death,
Accidents, Illness, Resignation etc.
 Planned recruitment mostly occurs considering the organizational plan to meet the
long term goals & objectives. HR department has to go through a set of collective
scheduled recruitment procedure depends on organizational practice – could be
Quarterly basis or Yearly.

As for the unexpected recruitment i.e. resign, emergency leave, unavoidable

circumstances etc.; HR mostly tries to fill the vacancy with internal pool of candidates
who are capable and worthy enough to handle the vacant posts.

2.10 Process of Selection

Selection activities typically follow a standard pattern, beginning with an initial

screening, interview and concluding with the final employment decision. Selection
process typically consists of eight steps. Such as -
1. Initial screening interview: The first step in the selection process whereby inquiries
about a job are screened. It is a two steps procedure. It is excellent opportunity for
Human Resource Management to describe the job in detail so the candidates can
consider seriously about applying. During the initial screening it is important to
identify a salary range, It is a two steps procedure, a) The screening of inquiries, b)
The provision of screening interview.
2. Completion of the application form: The application form gives a job performance
related synopsis of what applicant has been doing during their adult life, their skills
and their accomplishments. Applications are also useful in that they obtain
information the company wants.
3. Employment tests: Intelligence, aptitude, ability and interest tests are needed to
provide major input to the selection process. In this step handwriting analysis and
honesty tests have also been used with the attempt to learn more about the candidate.
4. The comprehensive interview: A selection device in which in-depth information"
about a candidate can be obtained. The applicant may be interviewed by Human
Resource Management interviewers, and senior managers. This interview assesses
one's motivation,, ability to work under pressure and ability to "fit in" with the
organization.
5. Background investigation: This stage contacting former employers to confirm the
candidates work record and to obtain their appraisal of his or her performance.
Contacting other references and verifying the educational accomplishments are
shown in the application. It is also checking credit references and criminal records
and even using third-party investigators to do the background check. Note: Under the
comprehensive Approach, all steps completed Before a haring--decision is made.
(Source: DeCenzo & Robbin "Human Resource Management").
6. Conditional job offer: Job offer made to an individual which will become
permanent after passing tests such as a substance abuse test. Conditional job offer is
usually made by an HRM representative. .
7. Physical or Medical examination: Physical exam can only be used, who are unable
to physically comply with the requirements of a job. It is to show that minimum
standards of health exist to enroll in company health and life insurance program.
8. Final job offer: Those individuals who perform successfully in the preceding steps
are now considered to be eligible to receive the employment offer.
 2.25 Conceptual Framework
Recruitment and selection is characterized finally by potential difficulties and it is
necessary to keep abreast of developments in research in this field. One of the assets of
every organization is its employees. To engage and employee’s services the employer
needs to undertake recruitment by creating a pool of applicants, which mainly leads to the
selection of qualified people to work in the organization. Recruitment and selection also
has an important role to play in ensuring worker performance and positive organizational
outcomes. Two main sources of recruitment was identified - internal and external source
of recruitment. The components of internal source of recruitment consists of transfers,
promotions, job positing and job bidding.

Conceptual Diagram of Recruitment and Selection

Transfers
Initial Screening
Promotions
Interview
Job Posting
Reference Check
Job bidding Selection Test
Internal Job offer
Recruitment

Recruitment Selection Organisational

Performance
External
Recruitment

Advertisement
E-Recruitment
Employee referrals
Employment Agencies
Labour office
Education & Training
Establishment

2.27 Staff Recruitment and Selecting Plan

This flow chart is aimed at enabling employers to recruit the right people for the right job. It
was realized that most companies did not have standard procedures it followed in recruiting
staff. This resulted in an inability to recruit the right caliber of personnel, which lead to poor
performance, hence the need for a plan such as a flow chart for staff recruitment and selection
plan as shown in below,
Reject
Begin Process Applicant
Recruited

Is there No
Job Analysis a recruitment
 References and
Background checks

Job Description
Reject
Test
Passed?
Sourcing

Did
Short listing applicant meet
all Test

Interview
2.28 Combined perspectives of sequential steps in the recruitment and
selection process;

Step 1: Identify the need to recruit

Step 2: Update the job description, specification and profile/determine the key
performance areas of the job/recruitment planning
Step 3: Determine the key performance areas of the job/recruitment planning
Step 4: Consult the recruitment policy and procedure
Step 5: Consider the sources of recruitment (searching)
Step 6: Choose the appropriate recruitment method (searching)
Step 7: Develop the recruitment advertisement /strategy development
Step 8: Place the advertisement in the most appropriate and suitable
communication medium/implement a decision
Step 9: Ensuring availability of application blanks
Step 10: Screen responses
Step 11: Recruitment evaluation and control
Step 12: Reception/ preliminary reception/initial screening interview/preliminary interview
Step 13: Completing the application form
Step 14: In-depth selection interview
Step 15: Background and reference checking
Step 16: Medical examination and physical/ pre-employment testing
Step 17: Assessment Centres/work samples
Step 18: Make a final hiring decision
Step 19: Make a fair job offer/final decision