Introduction
The human resource is an important asset of an organisation. The success or failure of an organisation is largely dependent on the calibre of the people working therein. Without positive and creative contributions from people, organisations cannot progress and prosper. In order to achieve the goals or perform the activities of an organisation, therefore, we need to recruit people with requisite skills, qualification and experience. It keeps the present as well as the future requirement of the organisation in mind.
Recruitment is the process of location and encouraging potential application to apply for existing or anticipated job opening. It is actually a linking function, joining together those with jobs to fill and those seeking jobs. Recruitment, logically, aims at (1) attracting a large number of qualified applicants who are ready to take up the job if it’s offered and (2) offering enough information for unqualified person to self select themselves out.
Sources of Recruitment
The sources of recruitment may be broadly divided into two categories: internal sources and external sources.
Internal Sources
Person who are already working in an organisation constitute the ‘internal source’. Retrenched employees, retired employees, dependents of deceased employee may also constitute the internal sources. Any vacancy arise, someone from within the organisation is upgraded, transferred, promoted or even demoted.
Merits and Demerits of ‘Recruiting People from Within’
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Merits
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Demerits
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● Economical: the cost of recruitment internal candidates is minimal. No expenses are incurred on advertising.
● Suitable: the organisation can pick the right candidates having the requisite skills. The candidates can choose a right vacancy where their talents can be fully utilised.
● Reliable: organisation has knowledge about the suitability of a candidate for a position. ‘Known devils are better than unknown angels’.
● Satisfying: a policy of preferring people from within offer regular promotional avenues for employees. It motivates them to work hard and earn promotion. They will work with loyalty and commitment.
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● Limited choice: the organisation is select candidates from a limited pool. It may have to sacrifice quality and for less qualified candidates.
● Inbreeding: Discourages entry of talented people, available outside an organisation. Existing employees may fail to behave in innovation ways and inject necessary dynamism to enterprise activity.
● Inefficiency: promotion based on length of service rather than merit, may prove to be a blessing for inefficient candidates. They do not work hard and prove their worth.
● Bone of contention: recruitment from within may, higher level position in an organisation. As year roll by, the race for premium position end up on a bitter note.
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External Sources
External sources lie outside an organisation. Here the organisation can have the services of: (a) Employees working in other organisation; (b) Job aspirants registered exchange; (c) Student from reputed educational institutions; (d) Candidates referred by union, friends, relatives and existing employees; (e) Candidates forwarded by search firm and contractors; (f) candidate responding to the advertisement, issued by the organisation; (g) Unsolicited application.
Merits and Demerits of External Sources of Recruitment
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Merits
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Demerits
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●Wide Choice: the organisation has the freedom to select the candidates from the large pool. Person with requisite qualification could be picked up.
● Motivation force: it helps in motivating internal employees to work hard and compete with external candidate while seeking career growth such a competitive atmosphere would help an employee to work to the best of his ability.
● Long term benefit: talented people could not join the ranks, new ideas could not find meaningful expression, a competitive atmosphere would compel people to give of their best and earn awards.
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● Expensive: hiring costs could go up substantially.
● Time consuming: it may takes time to advertise, screen, to test and to select suitable employees.
● Demotivating: employees who have put in considerable service may resist the process of filling up vacancies from outside. The feeling that their service have not been recognised by the organisation, forces them to work with less enthusiasm and motivation.
● Uncertainty: their is no guarantee that the organisation ultimately will be able to hire the service of suitable candidates.
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Challenges in Recruitment
In actual practise, it is always not easy to find and select a suitable candidate for a job opening. The recruiter choice of a communication medium may not be appropriate. Some of the bright candidates may being to view vacancy as not in line with their current expectations.
● Poor image: If the image of the firm is perceived to be low, the likelihood of attractive a large number of qualified applicants are reduced.
● Unattractive job: If the job to be filled is not very attractive, most prospective candidates may turn different and may not even apply. This is especially true in case of job that are dull, boring, anxiety producing, devoid of career growth opportunities and generally do not reward in a proper way.
● Conservative internal policies: A policy of filling vacancies through internal promotion based on seniority, experience, job knowledge etc may often come in the way of searching for qualified hands in the broader job market in an unbiased way. Likewise, in firms where powerful union’s exits, managers, may be compelled to pick up candidates with questionable merit, based on issues such as caste, race, religion, region, etc.
● Limited budgetary support: Recruiting efforts require money. Sometime because of limited resources, organisations may not like to carry on the recruitment efforts for long period of time. This can, ultimately, constrain a recruiter’s efforts to attract the best person for the job.
● Restrictive policies of government: Governmental policies often come in the way of recruiting people as per the rules for company or on the basis of merit etc. for example, reservations for special groups, have to be observed as per Constitutional provisions while filling up vacancies in government corporate, quasi – government organisations, etc.