Q. Discuss the sources of recruitment for an organization. Describe the steps in the selection procedure in an organization.

Ans.  The sources of recruitment are broadly divided into internal sources and external sources consisting of the following:

Internal sources of Recruitment:

1. Present Permanent Employees:  Organizations consider the candidates from this source for higher level of jobs due to availability of most suitable candidates for jobs relatively or equally to external sources, to meet the trade union demands and due to the policy of the organization to motivate the present employees.

2. Present temporary/casual Employees: Organizations find this source to fill the vacancies relatively at the lower level owing to the availability of suitable candidates or trade union pressures or in order to motivate them on present job.

3. Retrenched or Retired Employees: Employees retrenched due to lack of work are given employment by the organization due to obligation, trade union pressure etc. Sometimes they are re-employed by the organization as a token of their loyalty to the organization or to postpone some interpersonal conflicts for promotion.

4. Dependents of Deceased, Disabled, retired and present employees: Some organizations function with a view to developing the commitment and loyalty of not only the employee but also his family members.

5. Employee Referrals: Present employees are well aware of the qualifications, attitudes, experience and emotions of their friends and relatives. They are also aware of the job requirements and organizational culture of their company. As such they can make preliminary judgment regarding the match between the job and their friends and relatives.

External Sources of Recruitment

1. Campus Recruitment: These candidates are directly recruited by the Co; from their college/educational institution. They are inexperienced as far as work experience is concerned.

2. Private Employment Agencies/Consultants: Public employment agencies or consultants like ABC Consultants inIndia perform recruitment functions on behalf of a client company by charging fees. Line managers are relieved from recruitment functions and can concentrate on operational activities.

3. Public Employment Exchanges: The Government set up Public Employment Exchanges in the country to provide information about vacancies to the candidates and to help the organization in finding out suitable candidates. As per the Employment Exchange act 1959, makes it obligatory for public sector and private sector enterprises inIndia to fill certain types of vacancies through public employment exchanges.

4. Professional Organizations: Professional organizations or associations maintain complete bio-data of their members and provide the same to various organizations on requisition. They act as an exchange between their members and recruiting firm.

5. Data Banks: The management can collect the bio-data of the candidates from different sources like Employment Exchange, Educational Training Institutes, candidates etc and feed them in the computer. It will become another source and the co can get the particulars as and when required.

6. Casual Applicants: Depending on the image of the organization its prompt response participation of the organization in the local activities, level of unemployment, candidates apply casually for jobs through mail or handover the application in the Personnel dept. This would be a suitable source for temporary and lower level jobs.

7. Similar Organizations: Generally experienced candidates are available in organizations producing similar products or are engaged in similar business. The Management can get potential candidates from this source.

8. Trade Unions: Generally unemployed or underemployed persons or employees seeking change in employment put a word to the trade union leaders with a view to getting suitable employment due to latter rapport with the management.

9. Walk In: The busy organization and rapid changing companies do not find time to perform various functions of recruitment. Therefore they advise the potential candidates to attend for an interview directly and without a prior application on a specified date, time and at a specified place.

10. Consult In: the busy and dynamic companies encourage the potential job seekers to approach them personally and consult them regarding the jobs. The companies select the suitable candidates and advise the company regarding the filling up of the positions. Headhunters are also called search consultants.

11. Body Shopping: Professional organizations and the hi-tech training develop the pool of human resource for the possible employment. The prospective employers contact these organizations to recruit the candidates. Otherwise the organizations themselves approach the prospective employers to place their human resources. These professional and training institutions are called body shoppers and these activities are known as body shopping. The body shopping is used mostly for computer professionals. Body shopping is also known as employee leasing activity.

12. Mergers and Acquisitions: Business alliances like acquisitions, mergers and take over help in getting human resources. In addition the companies do also alliances in sharing their human resource on adhoc basis.

13. E_recruitment: The technological revolution in telecommunications helped the organizations to use internet as a source of recruitment. Organizations advertise the job vacancies through the worldwide wed (www). The job seekers send their applications through e-mail using the Internet.

14. Outsourcing: Some organizations recently started developing human resource pool by employing the candidates for them. These organizations do not utilize the human resources; instead they supply HRs to various companies based on their needs on temporary or ad-hoc basis.

Steps in the selection procedure in an organization.

Selection is a process of selecting the right candidate for the right job. It is about collecting information about the candidate’s qualifications, experience, physical and mental ability, nature and behaviour, knowledge, aptitude etc for judging whether a given applicant is suitable or not for the job. The selection process is discussed below:

1. Job Analysis:  Job analysis is the basis for selecting the right candidate.  Every organisation should finalise the job analysis.  Job description, job specification and employee specifications before proceeding to the next step of selection.

2.   Human Resource Plan:  Every company plans for the required number of and kind of employees for a future date.  This is the basis for recruitment function.

3.   Recruitment:  Recruitment refers to the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in an organisation.  It is the basis for the remaining techniques of the selection and the latter varies depending upon the former.  It develops the applicants’ pool.

4.   Application Form:  Application form is also known as application blank.  The technique of application blank is traditional and widely accepted for securing information from the prospective candidates.  It can also be used as a device to screen the candidates at the preliminary level.  Many companies formulate their own style of application forms depending upon the requirements of information based on the size of the company, nature of business activities, type and level of the job etc.  Information is generally required on the following items in the application forms :  (i) Personal background information, (ii) Educational attainments, (iii)  Work experiences, (iv)  Salary, (v) Personal details and (vi) References.

1. Written Examination: The organization have to conduct written examination for the qualified candidates after they are screened on the basis of the application blanks so as to measure the candidate’s ability in arithmetical calculations, to know the candidates attitude towards the job, to measure the candidates aptitude, reasoning, knowledge in various disciplines, general knowledge and English language.

2. Preliminary Interview: The preliminary interview is to solicit necessary information from the prospective applicants and to assess the applicant’s suitability to the job. The information provided by the candidate may be related to the job or personal specifications regarding education, experience, salary expected aptitude towards the job, age physical appearance and other physical requirements etc. Thus preliminary interview is useful as a process of eliminating the undesirable candidates. If a candidate satisfies the job requirement regarding most of the arrears he may be selected for further process. Preliminary interviews are short and known as stand-up interviews or sizing up of the applicants or screening interview. This interview is also useful to provide the basis information about the company to the candidate.

3. Business Games: Business games are widely used as a selection technique for selecting management trainees, executive trainees and managerial personnel at junior, middle and top management positions. Business games help to evaluate the applicants in the areas of decision making, identifying the potentialities, handling the situations, problem-solving skills, human relations skills etc.  Participants are placed in a hypothetical work situation and are required to play the role situations in the game.

4. Group Discussions:  The technique of group discussion is used in order to secure further information regarding the suitability of the candidate for the job.  Group discussion is a method where groups of the successful applicants are brought around a conference table and are asked to discuss either a case study or a subject matter. The candidates in the group are required to analyze, discuss, find alternative solutions and select the sound solution. A selection panel then observes the candidates in the areas of initiating the discussion, explaining the problem, soliciting unrevealing information based on the given information and using common sense, keenly observing the discussion of others, clarifying controversial issues, influencing others, speaking effectively, concealing and mediating arguments among the participants and summarizing or concluding aptly.  The selection panel, based on its observations, judges the candidate’s skills and ability and ranks them according to their merit.

5.   Test:  Psychological tests play a vital role in employee selection.  A psychological test is essentially an objective and standardized measure of sample of behaviour from which inferences about future behaviour and performance of the candidate can be drawn.

Eg.:  Multi-Skilling: Multi-Dimensional Testing:  L&G has realised that most of the company operations whether they are production or marketing or finance or human resources can be done by almost all the employees.  Experts are needed only in rare cases. Infact, services of the experts can be outsourced.  As such, L&G started selecting the candidates with multi-skills and who can perform a variety of functions.  L&G developed multi-dimensional testing.

Types of Interview: The types of Employment interviews are:

During various types of interviews depending on the job requirement the interviewer can see and analyse the strengths, weaknesses and potentials of the candidate. Whether he is suitable for the job, whether he is the right candidate. Various types of interviews help the interviewer to arrive at different conclusion. Eg. A Stress Interview helps to analyse whether a candidate can perform under stress and pressure and whether he can take a right decision at such times. Most of the organizations have realized recently that the employees’ positive attitude contribute much rather than employees skills and knowledge. Employees with positive attribute contribute much to the organization. Hence the interviewers look for the candidates with the right attitude while making final decisions.

Medical Examination : Certain jobs require certain physical qualities like clear vision, perfect hearing, unusual stamina, tolerance of hardworking conditions, clear tone etc. Medical examination reveals whether or not a candidate possesses these qualities.

Reference Checks:  After completion of the final interview and medical examination, the personnel department will engage in checking references. Candidates are required to give the names of references in their application forms. These references may be from the individuals who are familiar with the candidates academic achievement or from the applicants previous employer, who is well versed with the applicant’s job performance, and sometimes from co-workers.

Final Decision by Line Manager : The Line Manager concerned has to make the final decision whether to select or reject a candidate after soliciting the required information through different techniques discussed earlier. The line manager has to take much care in taking the final decision not only because of economic implications and of the decisions but also because of behavioural and social implications.

Job Offer : After taking the final decision the organization has to intimate this decision to the successful as well as unsuccessful candidates. The organization offers the job to the successful candidate either immediately. The candidate after receiving the job offer communicates his acceptance to the offer or requests the company to modify the terms and conditions of employment or rejects the offer.

Employment: The company may modify the terms and conditions of employment as requested by the candidate. The Company employs those candidates who accept the job offer with or without modifications of terms and conditions of employment and place them on the job.