Recruitment Techniques

Posted: October 17th, 2013

Recruitment Techniques

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Recruitment Techniques

In human resource management, recruitment techniques are the methods used in obtaining new staff for an organization. It involves selecting from a group of people, those persons that meet the requirements of the organization. The recruitment is often prompted by the need for more personnel and results from good planning by a human resource team. Each organization employs different techniques in recruiting its staff, which indicates that there are various methods used (Taylor, 166). Examples of such methods are internships, use of recruiting agencies, internal recruitment, media advertisements and internet recruitment.

The retail industry is based on providing goods and services to consumers. This means that its workers have to interact regularly with customers. This is an important factor to be considered when recruiting new staff, in terms of the skills required from the applicants. In this industry, the need to recruit is brought about by factors such as unexpected occurrences like death and resignation of a worker, anticipated trends in transfer of employees and planned recruitment done by the human resource sector of a particular firm.

The manufacturing industry is different from the retail industry in terms of skills required by employees. The employees in a manufacturing industry mainly require practical skills to while in the retail industry moat skills are derived from a person’s character and personality that are essential for interaction with customers. This implies that the methods used also entail what the employers expect from their potential employees.

Additionally, different techniques work variably in terms of efficiency for each of the above industries.

Internships are short-term experiences that provide a real encounter for those seeking to gain knowledge and skills required in a particular career path. Interns can be students or those that have already graduated, who are often supervised and guided through their stay at a given firm. Some organizations use this method to recruit new employees. This technique is advantageous in that the interns provide potential candidates for future recruitments. This may be a good technique for both the manufacturing and retail industries. If they are anticipating recruitment exercise in the near future then internships are a good option. Additionally they offer the opportunity for gaining youthful employees. The cons of internships are that it may not be an effective method when looking for experienced staff to fill in current vacancies.

Recruiting agencies are those that receive job postings from potential employers and employees and when need arises they direct them accordingly. Although job seekers are often not charged, employees pay the agencies to deliver the right candidates to them. It is effective as a recruitment technique in the retail industry but not the manufacturing one. This is because it requires personal evaluations of a person’s practical skills before placing them on a job. A con of this method is that some agencies are not up to standard and their only aim may be earn money not place the right people in the right places.

Internal recruitment offers a chance for current employees of a certain firm to advance their careers. This is because it focuses only on people already working for the organization. It is done through a job posting by the human resource team in the firm’s notice board. Its advantages are that it helps to reduce costs and at the same time retain the talent, and expertise of workers. However, it is not very effective because it has limitations according to the number of applicants and the variety of skills required for the job. It can limit an employer’s opportunity to get the right candidates for the job in question. I think its advantages can make it an effective recruitment method in any industry. However, its cons can affect its effectiveness especially in the manufacturing industry where variety of skills is necessary for a job well done.

A Media advertisement is a popular and commonly used recruitment technique. It entails placing of advertisements through media channels such as newspapers, radios, television and magazines. They can be manipulated to ensure the intended message reaches the potential employees. This concerning the information given for instance the advertisements should include the specific skills needed, duties and responsibilities of the employee and the means of application. There is a feature of advertisements referred to as blind advertisements, which do not offer any direct addresses of the firm or its name. This may discourage some people from applying du to issues of credibility. This is a good method because it targets a large number of people therefore the variety of skills is guaranteed. Its other disadvantage other than that of blind advertisements is that some people may use it as a chance to extort money from others by charging for application services. Based on its wide reach this is an effective technique for most sectors and industries.

Internet recruitment is an emerging trend in the recruitment process. It is whereby a firm or potential employees place their profiles and resumes on internet sites in search of work or to advertise work. It is advantageous especially for the retail industry because of its urgency. Many people are currently logged to the internet and responses in such cases are made promptly. They are cost effective and guarantee fulfillment of an organization’s immediate needs.

Conclusively all the above-mentioned recruitment techniques are effective in their own way depending on various factors. These factors include the kind of industry, the needs of a firm and cost of the technique among others (Dale, 157). Therefore if used appropriately they can serve the desired purpose effectively.

References

Dale, M. (2003). A Manager’s Guide to Recruitment & Selection. London: Kogan Page.

Taylor, S., Taylor, S., & Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2002). People Resourcing. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.