Chapter 3

Personnel Planning and Recruiting

Learning Outcomes
• Explain the main techniques used in employment planning and
forecasting.
• Explain and give examples for the need for effective recruiting.
• Name and describe the main internal sources of candidates.
Discuss a workforce planning method you would use to improve
employee engagement.
• List and discuss the main outside sources of candidates.
• Explain how to recruit a more diverse workforce.
• Discuss practical guidelines for obtaining application information

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Steps in Recruitment and Selection Process

candidates
Employment Recruiting:
planning and building a pool
forecasting of candidate
employees

Use selection Supervisors and

Applicants tools like tests others interview
complete to screen out final candidates
application forms most to make final
applicants choice

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Employment Planning and Forecasting
•Employment/Personnel Planning
• Personnel planning is the process of deciding what position the
firm will have to fill, and how to fill them.
• Its aim is to identify and address the gaps between the employer’s
workforce today, and its projected workforce needs

• The process of deciding how to fill the executive jobs are called
succession planning.

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Approaches of Personnel/workforce Planning

reviewing the client’s business plan and workforce data

identifying what positions the firm will have to fill and potential
workforce gaps

developing a workforce strategic plan

implementing the changes

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a. strategy and workforce planning:
• Personnel planning or workforce planning is the result of firm’s
strategic planning
• Example: plans to enter new businesses, to build new plants, or to r
educe activities will all influence the number of and types of
positions to be filled.
• At the same time, decisions regarding how to fill these positions will
impact other HR plans, for instance, training and recruitment plans.

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a. Personnel/employment forecasting:
• Personnel plans are built on forecasts—basic assumptions about the
future.
• Managers will usually need three sets of employment forecasts:
i. Personnel needs
ii. The supply of inside candidates
iii. The supply of outside candidates
• With these, the manager can identify supply–demand gaps, and
develop action plans to fill the projected gaps

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i. Personnel needs
• Forecasting workforce demand starts with estimating what the
demand will be for your products or services.
• Forecasting revenue and then decide the number of staff required
• However, managers must also consider other factors. These
include projected turnover, decisions to upgrade (or downgrade)
products or services, productivity changes, financial resources,
and decisions to enter or leave businesses.

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 Tools for projecting personnel needs:
a) Trend analysis
• studying past employee needs over a period of years to get
idea for future needs
b) Ratio analysis:
• making forecast on the basis of historical ratio between (1)
some causal factor (like sales volume) and (2) the number of
employees required (such as number of salespeople).
c) Scatter Plot
• A scatter plot shows graphically how two variables—such as
sales and your firm’s staffing levels—are related

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ii. The supply of inside candidates
• The main task here is determining which current employees are
qualified or trainable for the projected openings.
• They can use two techniques
i. personnel replacement charts
ii. position replacement card
iii. The supply of outside candidates
• Forecasting workforce availability depends first on the manager’s
own sense of what’s happening in his or her industry and locale.
• For example, unemployment rates above 7% a few years ago
signaled to HR managers that finding good candidates might be
easier

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Recruitment
• Recruitment is the process of attracting candidates for a vacant
position.
• It is the process of having the right person, in the right place,. at the
right time. It is crucial to organisational performance.
• A key element of human resource management is the recruitment of
staff, as this function generates the human capital that forms the
foundation of an organization.
• Whether an organization will have competent human resources or
not, depends predominantly on its ability to attract and retain
qualified applicants.

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Cont.
• Recruitment is an important factor for the organizations since it
performs the essential function of capturing an important resource
and has a strategic aim as it focuses on the need to attract
high-quality people in order to gain a competitive advantage (Parry &
Tyson, 2008).
• Recruitment might be the “most critical human resource function for
organizational success and survival” (Taylor and Collins, 2000).
• the set of activities and processes used to legally obtained 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 (Randall, 1987).

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Factors that affect recruitment

Image of the organization

Image of job

Size and growth potential

of the organization

Demographic factors

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• Image of the organization
• An organization with good image have the potentials to attract large pool of
candidates. Example: Unileaver, British American Tobacco
• Image of the job
• It means the attractiveness of the job. If the job to be filled is unattractive,
recruiting a large and qualified pool of applicants will be difficult.
• Size or growth potential of the organization
• Higher the size and growth potentials, higher the advancement opportunities.
• Demographic factors
• Gender ratio, age group, education level, economic condition, per capita
income etc. have influence on recruitment

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Recruiting Yield Pyramid
50
(new hires)
100 (offers
made) 2:1

150 (interviewed 3:2)

200 (candidate invite 4:3)

1200 (leads generated) 6:1

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• The first stage is to generate interest from candidates and there is a range of
ways of doing this. There are basically two sources of supply from where
potential employees can be drawn. These are:

Sources of recruitment

Internal source External

source

a) Informal Recruiting and the Hidden Job

job posting Market
b) Recruitment via internet
c) Advertisement
d) Employment agencies
e) Temporary agencies and alternative staffing

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a) Internal Sources
a) Job Posting
• Publicizing an open job to employees (often by literally posting it on
bulletin boards) and listing its attributes, like qualifications, supervisor,
working schedule, and pay rate
• External Sources
b) Informal Recruiting and the Hidden Job Market
o Many (or most) job openings aren’t publicized at all; jobs are created and
become available when employers serendipitously encounter the right
candidates.
c) Recruiting via internet
o Most employers recruit through the organization’s won websites, or use job
boards.
o Intelligent automated resume screening is another trend. Employer use
online tracking software to identify likely candidates based on resume key
words.

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c. Advertisement
▪ It is a method of recruitment frequently used for skilled workers, clerical and
higher staff.
▪ Advertisement can be given in newspapers and professional journals. These
advertisements attract applicants in large number of highly variable quality.
▪ Preparing good advertisement is a specialized task. If a company wants to
conceal its name, a ‘blind advertisement’ may be given asking the applicants
to apply to Post Bag or Box Number or to some advertising agency.

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• Advertisements, whether online or on paper, should be clear and
indicate the:
• requirements of the job
• necessary and the desirable criteria for job applicants (to limit the number of
inappropriate applications received)
• nature of the organisation’s activities
• job location
• reward package
• job tenure (for example, contract length)
• details of how to apply.

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d. Employment agencies
o Employment agencies can be public or private.
o Employment agencies are important sources of clerical, white-collar and
managerial personnel.
o They charge fee for each applicant they place
o Most are “fee-paid job” in which employer pays the fee.

e. Recruitment Process Outsourcers

o Recruitment process outsourcers are special vendors that handle all or most
of an employer’s recruiting needs. They usually sign short-term contracts with
the employer, and receive a monthly fee that varies with the amount of
actual recruiting the employer needs done.

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Temporary workers and alternative stuffing
a. Offshoring and Outsourcing Jobs
b. Executive Recruiters
c. Referrals and Walk-Ins
d. on-demand recruiting services
e. college recruiting

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Cont..
a. Offshoring and Outsourcing Jobs
• Outsourcing means having outside vendors supply services (such as benefits
management, market research, or manufacturing) that the company’s own
employees previously did in-house.
• Offshoring means having outside vendors or employees abroad supply services that
the company’s own employees previously did in-house.
b. Executive Recruiters
• Executive recruiters (also known as headhunters) are special employment agencies
employers retain to seek out top-management talent for their clients.
c. Referrals and Walk-Ins
• employer posts announcements of openings and requests for referrals on its
website, bulletin boards, and/or wallboards. It often offers prizes or cash awards for
referrals that lead to hiring

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Cont..
a. on-demand recruiting services
• Services that provide short-term specialized recruiting to support specific
projects without the expense of retaining traditional search firms.
b. college recruiting
• Sending an employer’s representatives to college campuses to prescreen
applicants and create an applicant pool from the graduating class

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Developing and using application form
• Application forms allow for information to be presented in a
consistent format, and therefore, make it easier to collect
information from job applicants in a systematic way.
• Application form design and language is also important - a poorly
designed application form can mean applications from some good
candidates are overlooked, or that candidates are put off applying.
• Example: For example, devoting lots of space to present employment
disadvantages a candidate who is not currently working.

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• References
• ACAS. (2010) Recruitment and induction [online]. Advisory booklet. London: Acas. Available
at:http://www.acas.org.uk
• GOVERNMENT EQUALITIES OFFICE. (2011) Equality Act 2010: What do I need to know? A quick start guide to
using positive action in recruitment and promotion. London: GEO. Available
at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employers-quick-start-guide-to-positive-action-in-recruit
ment-and-promotion
• INCOMES DATA SERVICES. (2011) Recruitment. HR studies. London: IDS.
• RECUITMENT & EMPLOYMENT CONFEDERATION. (2012?) Back to the future. REC working paper. Available
at: https://www.rec.uk.com/store/item/1542
• EMPLOYERS FORUM ON DISABILITY. (2011) Recruitment protocol. Available
at: http://www.businessdisabilityforum.org.uk/uploads/files/EFD_Recruitment_Protocol.pdf
• Useful contents:
• GOV.UK - Recruiting and hiring
• GOV.UK - Employers: preventing discrimination - recruitment

• Department for Business Innovation & Skills - professional recruitment guide

• Recruitment & Employment Confederation

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