Human Resources Management

Chapter 5

 Finding new employees for the organization is a continuing challenge.

 Recruitment is the process of finding and attracting capable individuals to
apply for employment and to accept a job offer if/when one is made to them.
 It is distinct from selection, which involves identifying candidates from this
pool of applicants who best meet job requirements using selection tools such
as interviews.
 It begins with generating a pool of applicants, continues during selection while
decisions are made among applicants to choose the best one, and then
extends after selection decisions have been made to convince candidates
who have been made offer, to accept the job.
 It includes both intentional (e.g., placing job ads) and unintentional (e.g.,
media coverage) actions
 It is a two-way street where applicants are learning about the organization,
and the organization is learning about the applicant
 Responsibility for recruitment usually belongs to the human resource
department
 Recruiters: Specialists within the human resource department of large
organizations who are responsible for recruitment

The recruitment process:

 Identify job openings

o Human resource planning
o Requests by managers

 Identify job specifications

o Reviewing job analysis information, i.e., job descriptions and
specifications
o Reviewing manager comments on what is needed for the job

 Determine recruitment methods

o Usually more than one method is used to find suitable candidates,
e.g., school, college and university visits, advertisements, contacts
with professional and labour associations, use of government
agencies such as EDC

 Obtain applications
o The right type of applicant is more important than the number of
applications received

 Maintain applicant interest in the organization during the selection process

 Try to convince selected applicants to accept the job
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF THE RECRUITMENT FUNCTION

Recruitment decisions may have profound implications for the organization and
its strategic success:

 Gaining Competitive Advantage from Human Capital

 Highly skilled and motivated employees are a source of competitive
advantage
 Reaping the Benefits of Diversity Management
 Diversity provides vitality and competitive advantage
 Focusing on Employee Development
 Organization has a choice to develop and promote internal
candidates or hire from outside
 Investing Resources into Recruitment
 Decision on the total recruitment budget affects the quality of
recruits and the overall effectiveness of recruitment

INTERNAL RECRUITING

Advantages
 Employee is familiar with the organization and its culture
 Employee is “known” to the firm; this improves the organization’s ability to
predict the person’s success in the job
 Improves workforce morale and motivation
 Information about employee performance is known in addition to scores on
selection tests; improves ability to predict success in the new job

Weaknesses
 Internal rivalry and competition for higher positions can reduce
interpersonal and interdepartmental cooperation
 No “new blood” is brought into the system, which can prevent creative
solutions from emerging
 Poor morale (leading to possible turnover) of employees who were not
promoted
 May be expensive to offer counselling, training, and development to
employees who vied for but did not get the promotion

Performance evaluation records are only relevant to the extent

that the promotion job is similar to the employee’s current job

EXTERNAL RECRUITING

Advantages
 Organization is able to acquire skills or knowledge (competencies) that
may not be currently available within
  Newer ideas and novel ways of solving problems may emerge

Weaknesses
 Newcomers may not fit in with the organization and into its present culture
 Newcomers take a longer time to learn about the organization’s culture,
policies, and practices
 Usually, hiring from the outside is more expensive
 Lowered morale and motivation levels of current employees who don’t see
any career growth possibilities within the firm

CONSTRAINTS ON RECRUITMENT

1. Policies of 4 types may constrain the recruitment process:

A. Promote-from-Within Policies
 Gives present employees the first opportunity for job openings and
facilitates their career growth

B. Compensation Policies
 Recruiters seldom have the authority to exceed stated pay ranges

C. Employment Status Policies

 Some unionized settings have limitations against hiring part-time,
temporary, and contract workers
 Policies may be in place against hiring employees who have second jobs

D. International Hiring Policies

 May require foreign job openings to be staffed with local citizens

2. Human Resource Plans

 Recruiters need to consider the firm’s overall plan to fill existing and future
vacancies, including decisions on whether to fill internally or by recruiting
from outside

3. Diversity and Inclusion Programs

 Where diversity/inclusion and Employment Equity Programs exist,
recruitment must also take these programs into account

4. Recruiter Habits
 The propensity of a recruiter to rely on methods, systems, or behaviours
that led to past recruitment success
 Habits may perpetuate past mistakes or obscure effective alternatives
5. Environmental Conditions
a. Leading Economic Indicators
i) Statistics Canada publishes the direction of the leading indicators
(upturns versus downturns in the national economy)
b. Predicted versus Actual Sales
i) Variations between predicted and actual sales may require recruiting
efforts to be adapted accordingly
c. Employment Statistics
i) Monitor availability and competition for workers to see workforce
supply by industry sector and job group

6. Job Requirements
 Highly specialized workers are more difficult to find than unskilled
 People with more experience generally cost more, so organizations are
not always able to afford the most experienced workers

7. Costs
 Recruiters must operate within budgets and minimize expenses
wherever possible

8. Inducements
 May be needed to stimulate a potential recruit’s interest
 Examples include: monetary, flextime, non-traditional benefits

Applicants typically use one of two methods to apply for a job: submit a résumé
or complete a job application form.

 The résumé is a one- to two-page summary of the applicant’s

education, work experience, personal contact information, work goals,
and related skills.

 An application form designates the information the recruiters would

like to have for each applicant, and may make indicators such as
education credentials and gaps in employment history more readily
apparent.

JOB APPLICATION FORMS

1. Name and Address

a. Are nearly universal requests—need to ensure that information
sought is job-related, i.e., non-discriminatory

2. Employment Status
a. Employment objectives and availability
 3. Education and Skills
a. Uncovers the job seeker’s abilities, e.g., specific skills and
education

4. Work History
a. Listing of past jobs

5. References
a. In additional to traditional references questions may explore
criminal record—must ensure job-relatedness

6. Signature Line
a. Candidates are usually required to sign and date their
applications
b. Allows the employer to check references, verify records, etc.
c. Affirms the information is true and accurate—falsification of an
application form is grounds for discharge in most organizations

RECRUITMENT METHODS

To let job seekers know about job opportunities, there are many options for
recruiters:

1. Walk-ins and Write-ins

a. Job seekers who arrive at or write to the human resource
department in search of a job without prior referrals and not in
response to a specific ad (includes résumés via email)

2. Employee Referrals
a. Recommendations by present employees to the recruiter about
possible job applicants for a position
b. Excellent recruitment technique however, caution must be taken
to ensure this method does not intentionally or unintentionally
discriminate

3. Advertising
a. Ads are the most familiar form of employment advertising
b. Blind ads are ads that do not identify the employer
c. Other advertisements include media-billboards, television, radio,
and transit advertising
d. Regardless of the ad media, applicants prefer to learn basics
about the job including hours of work, location, wages, and
benefits right on the ad
e. Ads may include attractive (only positive) or realistic (positive and
negative) messages
4. The Internet has become one of the most important recruiting tools:
 Cost-effective and research millions of users day and night
 Exact qualifications and job skills can be provided to weed out
unsuitable candidates
 It is relatively inexpensive
 Job Board sites allow job seekers to post their résumés and
recruiters to post their job opportunities
 Most organizations also have Careers pages on their websites
containing detailed information about their job opportunities,
wages and benefits, the organization, and employee testimonials

5. Social Media
 recruiting has expanded to mobile devices, and social media
webpages such as Facebook and LinkedIn
 social media can be used by recruiters to post their opportunities,
and recruiters may want to consider which sites to recruit on
depending on the sites that their prospective applicants may use
 social media can also be used by recruiter to seek more information
about candidates through their social networking sites such as
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and Flickr

6. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)

 ESDC is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for
developing, managing, and delivering social programs and services.
 The Skills and Employment branch provides work and employment
related programs and initiatives including:
 the Jobs and the Workplace webpages – information designed to help
Canadians find work, explore skills and training possibilities, make
career decisions, plan for retirement, and apply for temporary financial
assistance
 The Job Bank – a database of thousands of jobs and work
opportunities available across Canada

7. Private Employment Agencies

 Take an employer’s request for recruits and then solicits job seekers
 May screen applicants or provide a stream of applicants for the
client’s human resource department to screen

8. Professional Search Firms

 More specialized than placement agencies
 Have in-depth experience that HR departments may lack, and
may be willing to recruit from competitors
 9. Educational Institutions
 A common source of recruits for entry-level openings
 In recent years, “co-op education” programs have become
popular as have summer placement programs
 Alumni associations can be an excellent source for hiring
experienced technical and managerial staff

10. Professional Associations and Labour Organizations

 Professional associations can be a source of job seekers specific
to a particular occupation
 Local labour organizations maintain list of people with trade skills
who are looking for employment

11. Canadian Forces

 Veterans of the Canadian Forces are trained in almost every
profession imaginable.
 Many of these people have hard-to-find skills

12. Temporary-Help Agencies

 Provide “on-loan” employees for temporary jobs during
vacations, peak seasons, illnesses, etc.

13. Departing Employees

 Buy-back is a method of convincing an employee who is about to
resign to stay with the organization by offering increased wages,
schedule changes, etc.

14. Job Fairs

 May be useful methods to attract employees

15. Contract Workers

 a large segment of the Canadian labour market is composed of
contract workers.
 useful when work is of limited duration

16. Recruitment Abroad

 Canada recruits skilled workers from other countries, e.g.,
computer programmers

CHOOSING RECRUITMENT SOURCES

How does a recruiter choose which methods to use?

 How many recruits are needed?
 What is the skill level required?
 What sources are available in the industry and geographic region?
 What has worked in the past?
  How much is the budget?
 Are there labour agreements in place that specify recruitment options?

Producing a system to track each recruitment method to see the number of

applicants, quality of applicants, acceptances, performance on the job, and even
retention saves recruitment time, effort, and money.

EVALUATING THE RECRUITMENT FUNCTION

The effectiveness of the recruiting function should be evaluated on an ongoing

basis. Popular measures include:

 Cost per Hire

o The dollar cost per person recruited—should include the
direct and apportioned costs and overhead

 Quality of Hires and Cost

o Addresses the quality of people hired from various sources
e.g. performance, absenteeism

 Offers-to-Applicants Ratio
o Ratio between the number of job offers extended and the total
number of applicants calculated for each recruitment method

 Time Lapsed per Hire

o Time taken to fill a position