Chapter 3

Recruitment and Selection of Employee

3.1. Meaning of Recruitment

Successful human resource planning should identify human resource needs. Once these needs are
identified, we are able to do something to meet them. The next step is the acquisition function of
human resource management. Recruitment forms the first stage of acquisition function. This is
the process of locating potential candidate for selection . Recruitment is the process of
finding and attracting capable applicants for employment. It is the
discovering of potential candidates for actual or anticipated organizational
vacancies. Dale Yoder (1986) defines recruitment as a process of searching for prospective
employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an organization. The
process begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applications are submitted. The
result is pool of qualified applicants from which new employees are selected.

3.2. Recruitment functions

Responsibility for recruitment usually belongs to the HR department. This department works to
find and attract capable applicants. Job descriptions and specifications provide the needed
information upon which the recruitment process rests. Line and staff cooperation in recruitment
is essential. The HR manager who recruits and initially screens for the vacant job is seldom the
one responsible for supervising its performance. So he needs the help of line personnel.
Functions of the recruitment office are given below:

 Assessing recruitment
 Fixing standards.
 Advertisement and publicity
 Making initial contact with prospective candidates.
 Preliminary perusal and assessment of applications.
 Short-listing of probable candidates for selection.
 Selection Process like interviewing or testing.
 Recording and documentation.

3.3. Objectives of recruitment policy

Objectives are targets and goals. According to Yoder, following are the main objectives of
recruitment policy:
 To find and employ the best qualified person for each job.
 To retain the best and most promising ones.
 To offer promising careers and security.
 To provide facilities for growth and development.
 To minimize the cost of recruitment.
 To reduce scope of favoritism and malpractice.

3.4. Factors affecting recruitment

There are many factors affecting recruitment. These factors may be considered into two broad
groups:

Internal factors: These are the factors within an organization. These factors are listed down
here:

 Image of the organization. An organization with poor image cannot attract a large number of
applicants. For example, among most university graduates Dhaka university has a positive
image.

 Image of job or attractiveness of the job. If the job to be filled is unattractive, recruiting a
large and qualified pool of applicants will be difficult.

 Size and growth potential of the organization. Higher the size and growth potentials, higher
the advancement opportunities.

 Internal polices. Internal organizational policies such as promote from within will give
priority to individuals inside the organization. Such a policy will usually ensure that all
positions will be filled from within the ranks.

 Trade union requirements.

 Recruiting budgets.

a) External factors: These are the factors over which organization has little or no control. Some
of these are given below.

 Demographic factors: Gender ratio, age group, and educational level. Economic condition of
people and their per capita income, proximity of other organizations offering employment.

 Government requirements.
 Industrialization: Industrialization within the geographical area and geographical
concentration will have influence on employment market in recruitment.

 Labor market: Supply of labor may be plenty or shortage. In Bangladesh, supply of labor of
unskilled labor is abundant but there is shortage of skilled labor. The right type is difficult to
find.

The recruitment process involves several steps. Personnel managers or specialists known as
recruiters identify job openings through human resource planning or requests by managers. They
make a through analysis of job information, particularly job descriptions and specifications. This
information tells the human resource specialist the features of both the jobs and the people who
will fill them. They may also collect information from the concerned managers.

3.5. Sources of Recruitment

There are basically two sources of supply from where potential employees can be drawn. These
are internal sources and external sources. Internal sources indicate recruiting qualified people
from within the organization itself (from the present working force). When reference is made to
the number of employees already employed by the organization we speak of the internal supply.
Whenever any vacancy occurs, someone from within the organization is upgraded, promoted or
transferred to another department. Advantages and disadvantages are associated with promoting
from within the organization and hiring from outside the organization to fill openings.
 Internal Recruitment - is a recruitment which takes place within the concern or organization.
Internal sources of recruitment are readily available to an organization. Internal sources are
primarily three - Transfers, promotions and Re-employment of ex-employees.

Internal recruitment may lead to increase in employee’s productivity as their motivation level
increases. It also saves time, money and efforts. But a drawback of internal recruitment is that
it refrains the organization from new blood. Also, not all the manpower requirements can be
met through internal recruitment. Hiring from outside has to be done.

Internal sources are primarily 3

a. Transfers
b. Promotions (through Internal Job Postings) and
c. Re-employment of ex-employees - Re-employment of ex-employees is one of the
internal sources of recruitment in which employees can be invited and appointed to fill
vacancies in the concern. There are situations when ex-employees provide unsolicited
applications also.

 External Recruitment - External sources of recruitment have to be solicited from outside the
organization. External sources are external to a concern. But it involves lot of time and money.
The external sources of recruitment include - Employment at factory gate, advertisements,
employment exchanges, employment agencies, educational institutes, labour contractors,
recommendations etc.

a. Employment at Factory Level - This a source of external recruitment in which the

applications for vacancies are presented on bulletin boards outside the Factory or at the
Gate. This kind of recruitment is applicable generally where factory workers are to be
appointed. There are people who keep on soliciting jobs from one place to another.
These applicants are called as unsolicited applicants. These types of workers apply on
their own for their job. For this kind of recruitment workers have a tendency to shift
from one factory to another and therefore they are called as “badli” workers.
b. Advertisement - It is an external source which has got an important place in recruitment
procedure. The biggest advantage of advertisement is that it covers a wide area of
market and scattered applicants can get information from advertisements. Medium
used is Newspapers and Television.
c. Employment Exchanges - There are certain Employment exchanges which are run by
government. Most of the government undertakings and concerns employ people
through such exchanges. Now-a-days recruitment in government agencies has become
compulsory through employment exchange.
d. Employment Agencies - There are certain professional organizations which look towards
recruitment and employment of people, i.e. these private agencies run by private
individuals supply required manpower to needy concerns.
e. Educational Institutions - There are certain professional Institutions which serves as an
external source for recruiting fresh graduates from these institutes. This kind of
recruitment done through such educational institutions, is called as Campus
Recruitment. They have special recruitment cells which helps in providing jobs to fresh
candidates.
f. Recommendations - There are certain people who have experience in a particular area.
They enjoy goodwill and a stand in the company. There are certain vacancies which are
filled by recommendations of such people. The biggest drawback of this source is that
the company has to rely totally on such people which can later on prove to be
inefficient.
g. Labour Contractors - These are the specialist people who supply manpower to the
Factory or Manufacturing plants. Through these contractors, workers are appointed on
contract basis, i.e. for a particular time period. Under conditions when these contractors
leave the organization, such people who are appointed have to also leave the concern.

Advantages of Internal Recruiting

 The people responsible for selecting internal candidates for vacant positions have access to
more comprehensive information relating to their abilities, track record and potential
 achievement than they would have if they were selecting people originating from the external
labor market.

 It is motivating to employees, as they are preferred over outsiders when the vacancies occur.
Employees tend to be committed to firms that are committed to them.
 It provides an opportunity for advancement.
 It is economical in terms of time and money.
 It improves employee morale.
 It improves image of the organization.
 It improves the probability of better performance as the candidate is in a better position in
knowing the objectives and expectations of the organization.

The demerits of the internal source are the following:

 The promotion may be biased in nature and may be based on seniority rather than merit.
Promotion from within should be aided by careful employee selection. The employment
process should favors those applicants who have potentials for promotion.
 Possible morale problems of those who are not promoted.
 Political infighting for promotions.
 Option may be limited in locating right talents.
 This channel of recruitment discourages new blood from entering the organization.
 Inhibits innovation and creativity.
 Subjectivity in promotion.

Promotion from within should be aided by careful employee selection. The employment process
should favors those applicants who have potentials for promotion. Effective promotion from
within also depends on other HR actions. It depends on providing the education and training
needed to help employees identify and develop their promotion potential. It also requires career-
oriented appraisals.

External sources

Recruiting from outside the organization is known as external source. All firms more or less rely
on external sources. Advantages of external sources are:

 Bringing some new and fresh ideas into the organization. It offers the organization the
opportunity to inject new ideas into its operations by utilizing the skills of external
candidates.

 Improving the knowledge and skill of the organization by recruiting from outside sources.

 Improving and sustaining competitive advantage.

 Economical in the long run.

 External recruitment is a form of communication, whereby the organization projects its

image to potential employees, customers, and others outside the organization.

 Recruitment from internal source creates vacancy at the lower level, and these positions need
to be filled by the outsiders.

Disadvantages of external sources are as follows:

 Costly.
 Cause brain drain due to fear of lack of growth potential.
 Higher probability of employee turnover.
 Demoralization of existing employee for alleged double standard and favor shown towards
new recruitment from outside by offering better position and pay.

Employee Selection

Recruitment and Selection: A comparison

Recruitment and selection are not synonymous. Recruitment means announcing job opportunities
to the public in such a way that a good number of suitable applicants will apply for them. Once a
pool of suitable applicants is created through recruiting, the process of selecting applicants
begins. Selection means choosing from those applicants who are most likely to succeed in the
new job. Recruitment is the process of attracting a pool of candidates for a vacant position, and
selection is the technique of choosing a new member of the organization from the available
candidates. The selection process is a series of steps used to decide which recruits should be
hired. Dale Yoder (1972) defines selection as a process by which candidates are divided into
class- those who will be offered employment and those who will not. The process begins when
recruits apply for employment and ends with the hiring decision. In this sense recruitment is a
positive process while selection is a negative process of rejecting most of the candidates leaving
only a few who are considered suitable.

The objectives of selection process are to select a candidate whose success probability in the job
is the highest, and motivate right candidates to opt for vacancy by proper presentation of the
organization to the potential candidates. Cost of selection is another important aspect. It should
be the endeavor of the organization to minimize the cost. Cost is incurred in advertisement,
calling for interviews, arranging interview, and tests.

In many personnel departments, recruiting and selection are combined and called the
employment function. In large personnel departments, the employment function is the
responsibility of the employment manager. In smaller departments, personnel managers handle
these duties. Employment managers use the selection process to find new workers. The selection
process relies on three helpful inputs.

Job analysis information provides the description of the jobs, the human specifications and the
performance standards each job requires. Human resources plans tell employment managers
what job openings are likely to occur. These plans allow selection to proceed in a logical manner.
Finally recruits are necessary so that the employment manager has a group of people from which
to choose. These three inputs largely determine the effectiveness of the selection process.

3.7 Selection Process

Selection is a decision making process. A process is a number of interrelated activities. The

selection process is a series of steps through which applicants pass. For example, a candidate
who fails to qualify for a particular step is not eligible for appearing for the subsequent step.
Result of each step is crucial. Failure of any step disqualifies the candidate from attempting the
next step. Because of this characteristic, Yoder (1972) has termed this process as succession of
hurdles. It is designed to determine the most likely candidates to be successful at fulfilling the
job requirements by eliminating those candidates least likely to succeed. A well-designed
selection process involves the following steps:

 Reception of application
 Screening
 Application Blank
 Employment tests
 Interview
 References
 Medical examination
 Hiring decision or employment

These steps are briefly discussed in subsequent paragraphs.

Preliminary reception of applicants: The selection process is a two way street. The organization
selects employees and the applicants select employers. Selection starts with a visit to the
personnel office or with a written request for an application. On the basis of how this initial
reception is handled, the applicants begin to form opinion of the employer.
Screening: This step may involve two activities: screening applications
and screening interviews. Screening applications is the verification of
applications against the predetermined requirements of job given in job
description and job specification. Based on such comparison, many
applicants can be screened out for their inability to meet the criteria
specified in job specification. Screening interviews is conducted in which
the candidate is asked to present himself for clarifying certain points,
which are not explicit from his application.

Job Application Blank: The job application blank collects information

about recruits in a uniform manner. The application blank usually
contains such information as:

 Personal data (name, address, phone number, place of birth, sex, race, religion, national
origin, health, height, weight).
 Employment status (type of employment sought, position sought, date available for work,
salary desired).
 Education qualification and training.
 work history or past experience,
 Expectation of salary.
 Memberships.
 Awards and hobbies.
 References.
 Signature line, etc.

All these information are useful from the point of view of management. Even though the
individual may lie in giving this information, most of it can be checked independently and
verified. It is a source of data bank to the organization of their employees. It helps draw
conclusion about applicant‘s performance or achievement in his previous job.

Employment tests: These tests are devices that assess the probable match between applicants and
job requirements. These tests are conducted in order to improve the selection decisions. Tests are
a screening device. Some are paper-and –pencil tests; others are exercises that stimulate work
conditions.

Tests should be valid. Validity means that the test scores significantly relate to job performance.
It measures how successful is selection technique is in predicting the future performance of the
job occupant. When scores and performance are unrelated, the test is invalid and should not be
used for selection. There are five variations of validity. These are:

 Content validity
 Predictive validity
 Concurrent validity
 Construct validity
 Criterion validity

A test should be reliable. Reliability means that a test should yield consistent results each time an
individual takes it. Tests are fair because they prevent corruption and favoritism in the selection
and promotion of people. Tests data can be referred to again at a later stage to see how how good
it was in predicting actual success in the job ( Furnham, 1997). There are many tests used to
select employees. Among the important of these tests are:

 Psychological (for example, psychological tests are those that measure personality or
temperament.
 Knowledge,
 Performance,
 Interest,
 Attitude,
 Medical.

Those who argue that tests have disadvantages are likely to cite the following:

- Those tested may lack the ability to give responses that reflect their true feelings, so their
responses are meaningless.
- Questions in the test booklet could be misinterpreted due to lack of understanding on the part
of some subjects and this affects the accuracy of the responses.
- There could be some persons who try to confuse the situation by giving irrelevant and stupid
responses.
- Test fails to measure certain personality characteristics such as trustworthiness.
- Tests are invalid because they do not measure what they are supposed to measure, and test
scores are not good at predicting the testee’s work performance over time.

Selection interview: Interviews are most widely used device for selection. It summarizes and
integrates all information concerned with the candidate. Strauss and Sayles (1989) define an
interview as a purposeful exchange of ideas, the answering of questions and communication
between two or more persons. The interviewer’s goal in selection is to match human
characteristics and abilities with the demands of the jobs. This objective can be expressed as to “
find the right man for the right job”. The main objective objectives of selection interview are to:
 Get an opportunity to judge an applicant’s qualifications and characteristics
 Establish a rapport between organizational personnel and applicant,
 Promote good will towards the company, and
 Get first- hand information about the candidate.

The selection interview is formal, in-depth conversation conducted to evaluate the applicant’s
acceptability. The interview is a face –to- face, oral, observational and personal appraisal method
of evaluating the applicant. The interviewer seeks to answer three broad questions: can the
applicant do the job? Will the applicant do the job? How does the applicant compare with others
who are being considered for the job? Selection interviews allow two way exchange of
information: interviewers learn about the applicant, and the applicant learns about the employer.

Interview may be in the form of individual and group. One form of group interviews is to have
applicants meet with two or more interviewers. They are given a certain problem and asked to
discuss among themselves and come up with an agreed plan of action for solving the problem.
The interviewers are watching the proceedings without actually taking part or interfering. This
allows all interviewers to evaluate the individual on the same questions and answers. This saves
time. It also permits the answers of different applicants to be compared immediately.

Types of Interview: There are different interview formats. Following are the types:
 Structured (questions are predetermined and sequenced).
 Unstructured ( non-planned and non-formatted).
 Mixed ( a combination of structured and unstructured).
 Problem solving or stress producing.

Reference and background checks: What type of person is the applicant? Is the applicant s
good, reliable worker? To answer these questions employment specialists use references and
background checks. Bio-data submitted by applicants are scrutinized for verification with
primary and secondary data. Discrepancies are found in the following areas:
 Reasons for leaving previous job.
 Date of employment
 Salary
 Job title.

Tendency is more on over-stating job title, salary and duration of employment. Common method
is to contact the previous employers and get the correct position. In many cases, candidates are
asked to produce letters of recommendations of referees. There are two type of references:
 Character references
 Experience reference

Letters of references are of two types: specific and general. References from ex-employers are
not always effective due to:
 Reluctance to pass on negative information about the ex-employees.
 Employee quote persons who are well known and familiar.
 Exaggerated allegation against ex-employers who quit their firm.

References should be reliable. Reliability can be increased by

 Getting opinion from three to four persons and comparing them.
 Contacting referees in person or on telephone and getting their views.
 Making attempts to contact previous teachers and head of educational institution as
references.
 Assuring confidentiality of information disclosed during personal discussion.

Medical evaluation : The selection process may include a medical evaluation of the applicant
before the hiring decision is made. The criteria for medical examination vary with the nature of
job and type of organization. For example, high standard of health is specified for defense
services. Normally the evaluation is a health checklist that asks the applicant to indicate the
health and accident information. A Company nurses or physician sometimes supplements the
questionnaire with a physical examination.

Hiring decision: The final hiring decision marks the end of the selection process, assuming that
the candidate accepts the job offer. Candidate who has successfully completed the various
hurdles of selection process is offered the job. Employment is complete when the successful
candidate accepts the offer and joins the firm. To maintain good public relations, employers
should notify applicants who were not selected. Employment specialists may want to consider
rejected applicants for other openings since these recruits already have gone through various
stages of the selection process. Retaining these applications can be useful if the employer is
charged with employment discrimination. The applications of those hired should also be
retained. The application blank begins the employee’s personnel file and contains useful
information for studies that the personnel department may conduct to learn about the source of
its applicants- such as age, sex, race, or other work-force characteristics. If some recruits prove
unsatisfactory after they are hired, for example, personnel experts may be able to reconstruct the
selection process beginning with the application.

Questions for Discussion

1. Distinguish between recruitment and selection.

2. Mention the popular sources of employee recruitment.

3. Selection is viewed to be a decision making process. Discuss.

4. If you were the dean of a business school, what selection devices would you use to identify
effective faculty members?

5. What are the major steps of selection process? Explain with a suitable diagram.

6. “Selection is a rejection process”. Explain.

 Internal Recruitment - is a recruitment which takes place within the concern or

organization. Internal sources of recruitment are readily available to an organization. Internal
sources are primarily three - Transfers, promotions and Re-employment of ex-employees.

Internal recruitment may lead to increase in employee’s productivity as their motivation level
increases. It also saves time, money and efforts. But a drawback of internal recruitment is that it
refrains the organization from new blood. Also, not all the manpower requirements can be met
through internal recruitment. Hiring from outside has to be done.

Internal sources are primarily 3

a. Transfers
b. Promotions (through Internal Job Postings) and
c. Re-employment of ex-employees - Re-employment of ex-employees is one of the
internal sources of recruitment in which employees can be invited and appointed to fill
vacancies in the concern. There are situations when ex-employees provide unsolicited
applications also.

 External Recruitment - External sources of recruitment have to be solicited from outside

the organization. External sources are external to a concern. But it involves lot of time and
money. The external sources of recruitment include - Employment at factory gate,
advertisements, employment exchanges, employment agencies, educational institutes, labour
contractors, recommendations etc.

a. Employment at Factory Level - This a source of external recruitment in which the

applications for vacancies are presented on bulletin boards outside the Factory or at the
Gate. This kind of recruitment is applicable generally where factory workers are to be
appointed. There are people who keep on soliciting jobs from one place to another. These
applicants are called as unsolicited applicants. These types of workers apply on their own
for their job. For this kind of recruitment workers have a tendency to shift from one
factory to another and therefore they are called as “badli” workers.
b. Advertisement - It is an external source which has got an important place in recruitment
procedure. The biggest advantage of advertisement is that it covers a wide area of market
 and scattered applicants can get information from advertisements. Medium used is
Newspapers and Television.
c. Employment Exchanges - There are certain Employment exchanges which are run by
government. Most of the government undertakings and concerns employ people through
such exchanges. Now-a-days recruitment in government agencies has become
compulsory through employment exchange.
d. Employment Agencies - There are certain professional organizations which look
towards recruitment and employment of people, i.e. these private agencies run by private
individuals supply required manpower to needy concerns.
e. Educational Institutions - There are certain professional Institutions which serves as an
external source for recruiting fresh graduates from these institutes. This kind of
recruitment done through such educational institutions, is called as Campus Recruitment.
They have special recruitment cells which helps in providing jobs to fresh candidates.
f. Recommendations - There are certain people who have experience in a particular area.
They enjoy goodwill and a stand in the company. There are certain vacancies which are
filled by recommendations of such people. The biggest drawback of this source is that the
company has to rely totally on such people which can later on prove to be inefficient.
g. Labour Contractors - These are the specialist people who supply manpower to the
Factory or Manufacturing plants. Through these contractors, workers are appointed on
contract basis, i.e. for a particular time period. Under conditions when these contractors
leave the organization, such people who are appointed have to also leave the concern.