SOURCES OF APPLICANTS

As explained by Opatha (2009), recruitment is finding and attracting suitably qualified people to apply for job vacancies in an organization. There are mainly two methods of recruitment, Internal and External (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

  INTERNAL RECRUITMENTS  

Employees have the right to grow within the organization and, therefore, should give first consideration when an opening is available (Saviour, Kofi, Yao and Kafui, 2016). Internal recruitments can be handled by promotions, internal transfers or referrals. These vacancies can be advertised internally through job postings (Ranjani, 2016).

JOB POSTING

Job Posting is an internal recruitment method that offers existing staff members an opportunity before searching for outside resources (Arthur, 2006).

The company I work for is a leading ERP consulting company, hereinafter referred to as A-consulting PVT Ltd; which posts its vacancies in the corporate intranet and weekly newsletter. These job postings contain simplified job descriptions, department, requirements, primary duties and responsibilities, work conditions, and region (Arthur, 2006). Job posting allows employees to apply for different regions, ultimately improving employee satisfaction and motivation (Ranjani, 2016).

Garment manufacturing companies like MAS Holdings PVT Ltd and Brandix Lanka limited do job posting internally and recruit employees according to the demands. When there are openings for new overseas factories, the priority goes to internal employees.

  EXTERNAL RECRUITMENTS  

No matter how much a company fulfills its manpower through internal recruitments, it's still necessary to bring new talents into the organization through external sources (Saviour, Kofi, Yao and Kafui, 2016).

External Recruitment Sources

ADVERTISEMENTS

As mentioned by Arthur (2006), whether in newspapers or professional publications, advertising remains one of the most popular and effective means for canvassing applications. 

According to Armstrong (2009), the purposes of an advertisement are;
    to attract an adequate number of candidates with the suitable qualification for the job,
    to attract enough candidates at minimum cost, 
    to compete with the other employees to attract potential candidates, 

    to create and maintain interest in the company and the job.

EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING ESTABLISHMENTS

Graduate recruitment is one of the most vital annual exercises for some companies. For some organizations, the primary source of candidates for training schemes will be universities (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The success of college recruits depends on the company's excellent reputation, how recruits will impress their resumes and how much interest has been shown in their institute for a long time (Arthur, 2006).
 

A-consulting PVT Ltd collaborates with leading universities in Sri Lanka to conduct summer intern programs, enabling trainee graduates to have insight into the organization and ERP solution and ultimately join the team after graduation.

EMPLOYEE REFERRALS

The employee referral program is where an existing employee recommends an outside candidate for the vacant job (Saviour, Kofi, Yao and Kafui, 2016). A company's employee referral program is one of the fastest, most cost-effective, and most morale-boosting recruitment sources (Arthur, 2006). 

A-consulting PVT Ltd will provide an additional referral bonus (same basic salary as the referred employee's level) to the existing employees if they successfully refer new candidates to the organization.

RECRUITMENT CONSULTANTS / HEADHUNTERS

Recruitment consultants or headhunters maintain their own shortlist or data bank through advertisements and interviews. Mainly this method is used for senior jobs. The company can be anonymous if it wishes.  Most recruitment consultants charge a fee based on a percentage of the basic salary for the job (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

ONLINE RECRUITMENTS / E-RECRUITMENT / SOCIAL MEDIA

Internet recruiting can be identified as the newest method of recruiting. Most companies currently use the Internet, including social networking sites, to fill job openings. It is a quick, efficient, and inexpensive way to reach a large pool of job seekers (Boone and Kurtz, 2010).

The COVID-19 has boosted recruitment websites such as Monster (Boone and Kurtz, 2010), Career Builder, Glassdoor (Abbas, Shah and Othman, 2021)  and common networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

The latest CIPD survey shows that corporate websites and professional networking like LinkedIn are the most effective recruitment methods (Recruitment: an introduction, 2021). As per the Boone and Kurtz (2010), aerospace giant Boeing began posting job ads on Facebook. 

OUTSOURCING

Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring employees outside a company to perform tasks originally performed in-house by the company's employees and staff. Organizations usually undertake this as a cost-cutting measure. In addition, it will reduce training, support, administrative tasks, and organization risk associated with managing the workforce (Brown, 2011).

Outsourcing might be cost-effective; however, reality may be different. Employees, government officials, safety experts, and the general public raised their worries when United Airlines announced the plan to outsource some of its engineering work from its San Francisco maintenance hub to India (Boone and Kurtz, 2010).

The below table illustrates the pros and cons of the recruitment sources discussed above.

  

Source: (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

As per the survey done by CIPD following are the top four candidate attraction methods identified in the year 2020.

    FIGURE 1.0.   Source: RESOURCING AND TALENT PLANNING SURVEY (2021).

REFERENCES

Abbas, S., Shah, M. and Othman, Y., 2021. Critical Review of Recruitment and Selection Methods: Understanding the Current Practices. Annals of Contemporary Developments in Management & HR, 3(3), pp.46-52.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice, 13th edition. 13th ed. London: Kogan Page.

Armstrong, M., 2009. ARMSTRONG’S HANDBOOK OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE. 11th ed. www.koganpage.com.

Arthur, D., 2006. RECRUITING, INTERVIEWING, SELECTING & ORIENTING NEW EMPLOYEES. 4th ed. Arthur Associates Management Consultants Ltd.

Boone, L. and Kurtz, D., 2010. Contemporary BUSINESS. 14th ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Brown, J., 2011. The complete guide to recruitment. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page.

Cipd.co.uk. 2021. Recruitment: an introduction. [online] Available at: <https://www.cipd.co.uk/Export/ToPdf?path=%252fknowledge%252ffundamentals%252fpeople%252frecruitment%252ffactsheet> [Accessed 11 August 2022].

Cipd.co.uk. 2021. RESOURCING AND TALENT PLANNING SURVEY 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/resourcing-and-talent-planning-2021-1_tcm18-100907.pdf> [Accessed 12 August 2022].

Opatha, H., 2009. Human Resource Management. researchgate,.

Ranjani, N., 2016. A STUDY ON RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES IN IT COMPANIES. [online] Google Books. Available at: <https://books.google.lk/books?id=QNbvDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=recruitment+methods&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=recruitment%20methods&f=false> [Accessed 10 August 2022].

Saviour, A., Kofi, A., Yao, B. and Kafui, L., 2016. The Impact of Effective Recruitment and Selection Practice on Organisational Performance (A Case Study at University of Ghana). Global Journal of Management and Business Research, [online] 16(11). Available at: <https://globaljournals.org/GJMBR_Volume16/3-The-Impact-of-Effective-Recruitment.pdf> [Accessed 10 August 2022].