What is the Recruitment Policy?

As Yoder et al observe recruitment policy spells out the objectives of the recruitment and provides a framework for implementation of the recruitment program in the form of procedures. It may involve a commitment to broad principles such as filling vacancies with the best-qualified individuals. The recruitment policy may embrace several issues such as the extent of promotion from within, attitudes of enterprise in recruiting old, handicapped, and minor individuals, minority group members, part-time employees, and relatives of present employees. In addition, the recruitment policy may also involve the organization system to be developed for implementing the recruitment program and procedures to be employed. Explicitly, an organizational system is a function of the size of an enterprise. 

In smaller enterprises, there may be merely informal recruiting procedures and the line official may be responsible to handle this function along with their usual responsibilities. On the other hand, in larger organizations, there is usually a staff unit attached with personnel or an industrial relations department designated as an employment or recruitment office. This specialization of recruitment enables staff personnel to become highly skilled in recruitment techniques and their evaluation. However, recruitment remains the line responsibility as far as the personnel requisition forms are originated by the line personnel, who have also the final word in the acceptance or rejection of a particular applicant. Despite this, the staff personnel has adequate freedom in respect of sources of manpower to be tapped and the procedure to be followed for this purpose.

The recruitment policy covers the following areas:

•        To prescribe the degree of emphasis. Inside the organization or outside the organization.

•        To provide the weightage that would be given to certain categories of people such as the local population, physically-handicapped personnel, personnel from scheduled castes/tribes, and other backward classes.

•        To prescribe whether the recruitment would be centralized or decentralized at unit levels.

•        To specify the degree of flexibility regarding age, qualifications, compensation structure, and other service conditions.

•        To prescribe the personnel who would be involved in the recruitment process and the role of the human resource department in this regard.

•        To specify the budget for meeting the expenditures incurred in completing the recruitment process.

According to Yoder, “the recruitment policy is concerned with quantity and qualifications of manpower.” It establishes broad guidelines for the staffing process. Generally, the following factors are involved in a recruitment policy:

To provide each employee with an open road and encouragement in the continuing development of his talents and skills;

•        To provide individual employees with maximum employment security, avoiding, frequent lay-off or lost time;

•        To avoid cliques that may develop when several members of the same household or community are employed in the organization;

•        To carefully observe the letter and spirit of the relevant public policy on hiring and, on the whole, employment relationship;

•        To assure each employee of the organization interest in his personal goals and employment objective;

•        To assure employees of fairness in all employment relationships, including promotions and transfers;

•        To provide employment in jobs that are engineered to meet the qualifications of handicapped workers and minority sections; and

•        To encourage one or more strong, effective, responsible trade unions among the employees.

Prerequisites of a Good Recruitment Policy: The recruitment policy of an organization must satisfy the following conditions:

•        It should be in conformity with its general personnel policies;

•        It should be flexible enough to meet the changing needs of an organization;

•        It should be so designed as to ensure employment opportunities for its employees on a long-term basis so that the goals of the organization should be achievable; and it should develop the potentialities of employees;

•        It should match the qualities of employees with the requirements of the work for which they are employed; and

•        It should highlight the necessity of establishing job analysis.

4.5 Factors Affecting Recruitment

The factors affecting recruitment can be classified as internal and external factors.

The internal factors are:

•        Wage and salary policies;

•        The age composition of the existing working force;

•        Promotion and retirement policies;

•        Turnover rates;

•        The nature of operations involved the kind of personnel required;

•        The level and seasonality of operations in question;

•        Future expansion and reduction programs;

•        Recruiting policy of the organization;

•        Human resource planning strategy of the company;

•        Size of the organization and the number of employees employed;

The cost involved in recruiting employees, and finally;

•        Growth and expansion plans of the organization.

The external factors are:

•        Supply and demand of specific skills in the labor market;

•        Company’s image perception of the job seekers about the company.

•        External cultural factors: Obviously, the culture may exert considerable checks on recruitment. For example, women may not be recruited for certain jobs in the industry.

•        Economic factors: such as a tight or loose labor market, the reputation of the enterprise in the community as a good paymaster or otherwise, and such allied issues which determine the quality and quantity of manpower submitting itself for recruitment.

•        Political and legal factors also exert restraints in respect of nature and hours of work for women and children, allied employment practices in the enterprise, reservation of Jobs for SC, ST, and so on.

4.6 Sources of Recruitment

After the finalization of the recruitment plan indicating the number and type of prospective candidates, they must be attracted to offer themselves for consideration for their employment. This necessitates the identification of sources from which these candidates can be attracted. Some companies try to develop new sources, while most only try to tackle the existing sources they have. These sources, accordingly, may be termed as internal and external.

Internal Sources

It would be desirable to utilize the internal sources before going outside to attract the candidates. Yoder and others suggest two categories of internal sources including a review of the present employees and the nomination of candidates by employees. Effective utilization of internal sources necessitates an understanding of their skills and information regarding relationships of jobs. This will provide possibilities for horizontal and vertical transfers within the enterprise eliminating simultaneous attempts to lay off employees in one department and recruitment employees with similar qualifications for another department in the company. Promotion and transfers within the plant where an employee is best suitable improve the morale along with solving recruitment problems. These measures can be taken effectively if the company has established job families through job analysis programs combining together similar jobs demanding similar employee characteristics. Again, employees can be requested to suggest promising candidates. Sometimes, employees are given prizes for recommending a candidate who has been recruited. Despite the usefulness of this system in the form of loyalty and its wide practice, it has been pointed out that it gives rise to cliques posing difficulty to management. Therefore, before utilizing this system attempts should be made to determine through research whether or not employees thus recruited are effective in particular jobs. Usually, internal sources can be used effectively if the numbers of vacancies are not very large, adequate, employee records are maintained, jobs do not demand originality lacking in the internal sources, and employees have prepared themselves for promotions.

Merits of Internal Sources: The following are the merits of internal sources of recruitment:

•        It creates a sense of security among employees when they are assured that they would be preferred in filling up vacancies.

It improves the morale of employees, for they are assured of the fact that they would be preferred over outsiders when vacancies occur.

•        It promotes loyalty and commitment among employees due to a sense of job security and opportunities for advancement.

•        The employer is in a better position to evaluate those presently employed than outside candidates. This is because the company maintains a record of the progress, experience, and service of its employees.

•        Time and costs of training will be low because employees remain familiar with the organization and its policies.

•        Relations with trade unions remain good. Labor turnover is reduced.

· As the persons in the employment of the company are fully aware of, and well-acquainted with, its policies and know its operating procedures, they require little training, and the chances are that they would stay longer in the employment of the organization than a new outsider would.

•        It encourages self-development among the employees. It encourages good individuals who are ambitious.

•        It encourages stability from a continuity of employment.

•        It can also act as a training device for developing middle and top-level managers.

Demerits of Internal Sources: However, this system suffers from certain defects as:

•        There are possibilities that internal sources may “dry up”, and it may be difficult to find the requisite personnel from within an organization.

•        It often leads to inbreeding and discourages new blood from entering an organization.

•        As promotion is based on seniority, the danger is that really capable hands may not be chosen. The likes and dislikes of the management may also play an important role in the selection of personnel.

•        Since the learner does not know more than the lecturer, no innovations worth the name can be made. Therefore, in jobs that require original thinking (such as advertising, style, designing, and basic research), this practice is not followed.

This source is used by many organizations; but a surprisingly large number ignore this source, especially for middle management jobs.

External Sources

DeCenzo and Robbin's remark, “Occasionally, it may be necessary to bring in some ‘new blood’ to broaden the present ideas, knowledge, and enthusiasm.” Thus, all organizations have to depend on external sources of recruitment. Among these sources are included:

•        Employment agencies.

•        Educational and technical institutes. and

•        Casual labor or “applicants at the gate” and nail applicants.

Public and private employment agencies play a vital role in making available suitable employees for different positions in the organizations. Besides public agencies, private agencies have developed markedly in large cities in the form of consultancy services. Usually, these agencies facilitate the recruitment of technical and professional personnel. Because of their specialization, they effectively assess the needs of their clients and the aptitudes and skills of the specialized personnel. They do not merely bring an employer and an employee together but computerize lists of available talents, utilizing testing to classify and assess applicants and use advanced techniques of vocational guidance for effective placement purposes.

Educational and technical institutes also form an effective source of manpower supply. There is an increasing emphasis on recruiting students from different management institutes and universities' commerce and management departments by recruiters for positions in sales, accounting, finance, personnel, and production. These students are recruited as management trainees and then placed in special company training programs. They are not recruited for particular positions but for development as future supervisors and executives. Indeed, this source provides a constant flow of new personnel with leadership potential. Frequently, this source is tapped through on-campus interviews with promising students. In addition, vocational schools and industrial training institutes provide specialized employees, apprentices, and trainees for semiskilled and skilled jobs. Persons trained in these schools and institutes can be placed on operative and similar jobs with a minimum of in-plant training. However, recruitment of these candidates must be based on realistic and differential standards established through research reducing turnover and enhancing productivity.

Frequently, numerous enterprises depend to some extent upon casual labor or “applicants at the gate” and nail applicants. The candidates may appear personally at the company’s employment office or send their applications for possible vacancies. Explicitly, as Yoder and others observe, the quality and quantity of such candidates depend on the image of the company in the community. Prompt response to these applicants proves very useful for the company. However, it may be noted that this source is uncertain, and the applicants reveal a wide range of abilities necessitating a careful screening. Despite these limitations, it forms a highly inexpensive source as the candidates themselves come to the gate of the company. Again, it provides measures for good public relations, and accordingly, all the candidates visiting the company must be received cordially.

Table 4.1: Recruiting Sources Used by Skill and Level

Skill/Level	Recruiting Source	Percentage of Use
Unskilled and Semiskilled	Informal contacts  Walk-ins  Public Employment Agencies  Want Ads	85 74 66 52
Skilled	Informal Contacts  Walk-ins Public Employment Agencies Want Ads	88 66 55 55
Professional Employees	Internal Search Informal Contacts  Walk-ins Public Employment Agencies Want Ads Private Employment Agencies	94 92 71 52 48 22
Managerial Level	Internal Search Informal Contacts  Walk-ins Private Employment Agencies Want Ads Public Employment Agencies	100 71 31 20 17 12

 

Source: Adapted from Stephen L. Mangum, “Recruitment and job Search: The Recruitment Tactics of Employers. “Personnel Administrator, June 1982, p. 102.

As Jesus observes, trade unions are playing an increasingly important role in labor supply. In several trades, they supply skilled labor in sufficient numbers. They also determine the order in which employees are to be recruited to the organization. In industries where they do not take an active part in recruitment, they make it a point that employees laid off are given preference in recruitment.

Application files also form a useful source of supply for the workforce. Attempts may be made to review the application to determine jobs for which the candidates filed for future use when there are openings in these jobs. The candidates may be requested to renew their cards as many times as they desire. All the renewed cards may be placed in “active” files and those not renewed for a considerable time may be placed in “inactive” files or destroyed. Indeed, a well-indexed application file provides the utmost economy from the standpoint of a recruiting budget.

The efficacy of alternative sources of supply of human resources should be determined through research. Attempts may be made to relate the factor of success on the job with a specific source of supply. Alternative sources can also be evaluated in terms of turnover, grievances, and disciplinary action. Those sources which are significantly positively related to job performance and significantly negatively related to turnover, grievances, and disciplinary action, can be effectively used in recruitment programs. The assessment should be periodically performed in terms of occupations. It may be that source “A” is most effective for technical workers, while sourcing “B” for semiskilled workers.

Advantages of External Recruitment: External sources of recruitment are suitable for the following reasons:

•        It will help in bringing new ideas, better techniques, and improved methods to the organization.

•        The cost of employees will be minimized because candidates selected in this method will be placed on the minimum pay scale.

•        The existing employees will also broaden their personality.

•        The entry of qualitative persons from outside will be in the interest of the organization in the long run.

•        The suitable candidates with skill, talent, knowledge are available from external sources.

•        The entry of new persons with varied expansion and talent will help in the human resource mix.

Disadvantages of External Sources:

•        Orientation and training are required as the employees remain unfamiliar with the organization.

•        It is more expensive and time-consuming. Detailed screening is necessary as very little is known about the candidate.

•        If a new entrant fails to adjust himself to working in the enterprise, it means yet more expenditure on looking for his replacement.

•        Motivation, morale, and loyalty of existing staff are affected if higher-level jobs are filled by external sources. It becomes a source of heart-burning and demoralization among existing employees.