Part 2

Employment and onboarding

Chapter 4:
Recruitment
 Learning objectives
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
Compile a recruitment policy for an organisation
Discuss the factors that influence recruitment
Decide whether internal or external recruitment sources and
methods would be preferable under specific circumstances
Explain the role of succession planning within the HR context
Consider and make proposals on the use of current and future
trends in recruitment
Discuss the importance of good staffing decisions.
The simplest definition of recruitment is
the process of identifying, interviewing
and hiring employees for jobs.
 The importance of recruitment
In order to be successful, organisations need to:
• Attract the right people, with the right skills and
experience into the right jobs.
• This process needs to be aligned to the
organisation’s overall strategic and operational
goals.
 Human resource management
• Human resource management (HRM), is the
function of people management within an
organisation.
• Recruitment is the first step in building an
organisation’s human capital.
 Pre-need hiring
• Hiring people before they are needed provides the
organisation with the scope to develop their skills and ensure
they are ready by the time the organisation needs them.
• Pre-need hiring is a strategy that is designed to make sure that
there is no significant delay in, for example, a customer
services position as a result of a shortage of talent.
• The approaches to pre-need hiring, see Section 4.4, allow the
organisation to carry out workforce planning strategically.
Internal factors that influence recruitment

Pay and
Organisational Organisational
working
policy culture
conditions
External factors that influence recruitment

Government
Image of the
restrictions and Labour market
company
trade unions
 Sources for internal recruitment

Existing employees

Referrals from current employees

Former employees
 Sources for external recruitment
Advertisements
Employment agencies
Tertiary institution recruiting
Government agencies
Flyers and direct mail
Internship/learnership programmes
Professional bodies
 E-recruitment
Mobile advertising

Video and audio streaming

Social networking

Media migration

Search engines
 The purpose of a recruitment policy
• To describe how an organisation can recruit
employees of the highest calibre.
• To ensure recruitment is in accordance with
employment legislation.
• To ensure recruitment is in line with best practice.
• To ensure recruitment is within organisational
resources.
 Discrimination in recruiting – see
Section 2.6 and the EEA

Discrimination against disabilities

Discrimination on grounds of sexual

orientation

Discrimination in recruiting females

Current and future trends in recruitment
• External environment major influence on recruitment
policies.
• The following factors have forced organisations to
look for more efficient and effective ways of utilising
their resources:
• Increasing economic unpredictability
• Competitiveness
• New technologies.
Current and future trends in recruitment cont.

Telecommuting – virtual working

Flexiwork and flexitime – flexible hours

Contingent workers – temporary workers

Employee leasing – leasing from an agency

Compressed work weeks – work scheduled in fewer hours

 Telecommuting
• Covid-19 has changed the way we work.
• Organisations have had to rethink about how to manage
keeping employees working.
• Telecommuting involves employees maintaining an office at
home.
• Normal duties are carried out by electronic means:
• Smartphones
• Personal computers
• Internet
• Email.
 Why plan for staffing?
• Staffing helps in ascertaining and locating competent
people for various jobs.
• It helps to improve the quantity and quality of the output
by putting the right person in the right job.
• It helps to improve job satisfaction for employees.
• It facilitates higher productive performance.
• It reduces the cost of personnel by avoiding wastage of
human resources.
• It facilitates the growth and expansion of the business.
A staffing strategy is a process for
defining and addressing the staffing
implications of strategic and
operational plans.
• Internal recruitment
When organisations choose
Internal
• External recruitment to promote an employee

recruitment from within the

organisation

When organisations recruit

External someone from outside the
recruitment organisation
 Promotions
Transfers

internal staffing
Approaches to
Demotions
Resignations
Retrenchments
Layoffs
Dismissals
Retirement