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Study Guide in BAC 101 – HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Module No. 6

STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. ___ 6

EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT & SELECTION

MODULE OVERVIEW

“People are an organization's most valuable asset and the key to its success."
- Dave Bookbinder”, The New ROI: Return on Individuals

The success and growth of the company depend on hiring highly qualified employees. At the same
time, the hiring process represents a major investment in money, time, and training.

Now that human resource planning and job analysis have been performed, the company’s next move
is to find applicants for possible employment. This is referred to as Recruitment.

Recruitment refers to the process of identifying, attracting, interviewing, selecting, hiring and onboarding
employees. In other words, it involves everything from the identification of a staffing need to filling it.

Depending on the size of an organization, recruitment is the responsibility of a range of workers. Larger
organizations may have entire teams of recruiters, while others only a single recruiter. In small outfits, the hiring
manager may be responsible for recruiting. In addition, many organizations outsource recruiting to outside firms.
Companies almost always recruit candidates for new positions via advertisements, job boards, social media
sites, and others.

Recruitment methods should ensure engaged, competent, productive employees who are loyal to the
organization. Finding the interested candidates who have submitted their profiles for a particular job is the
process of recruitment, and choosing the best and most suitable candidates among them is the process of
selection. The selection procedure followed by different organizations, many times, becomes lengthy as it is a
question of getting the most suitable candidates for which various tests are to be done and interviews to be
taken.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this Module, you should be able to:

1. Define recruitment & selection.

2. Discuss the different recruitment sources and its effectiveness.
3. Cite the advantages and disadvantages from internal and external sources of recruitment.
4. Explain the methods for identifying qualified job candidates.
5. Describe the steps in recruitment and selection process.
6. Cite various employment tests and their relevance and usefulness to employee selection.
7. Compare the major types of employment interviews.
8. Discuss the tips and techniques during the job interview.
9. Describe the criteria for obtaining reliable and valid information about job candidates.
10. Prepare a recruitment and selection plan and conduct a job interview.

LEARNING CONTENTS

You need skilled, dedicated employees to build your business. But how do you attract the human capital that
will position your business for growth and success?

Now, let us first define recruitment.

Recruitment is the process of finding candidates, reviewing applicant credentials, screening potential

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employees, and selecting employees for an organization. Effective recruitment results in an organization hiring
employees who are skilled, experienced, and good fits with your corporate culture.

Recruitment is the process which aims to attract suitably qualified candidates for a job from which it
is possible to select a competent person.

Recruitment = identifying and attracting potential employees

In addition, Recruitment is a process of finding and attracting the potential resources for filling up the vacant
positions in an organization. It sources the candidates with the abilities and attitude, which are required for
achieving the objectives of an organization.

Recruitment process is a process of identifying the jobs vacancy, analyzing the job requirements, reviewing
applications, screening, shortlisting and selecting the right candidate.

Recruitment Process

Recruitment process is the first step in creating a powerful resource base. The process undergoes a systematic
procedure starting from sourcing the resources to arranging and conducting interviews and finally selecting the
right candidates.

Recruitment Strategy

Recruitment strategy is the second step of the recruitment process, where a strategy is prepared for hiring the
resources. After completing the preparation of job descriptions and job specifications, the next step is to decide
which strategy to adopt for recruiting the potential candidates for the organization.

While preparing a recruitment strategy, the HR team considers the following points:

▪ Make or buy employees

▪ Types of recruitment
▪ Geographical area
▪ Recruitment sources

The development of a recruitment strategy is a long process, but having a right strategy is mandatory to attract
the right candidates. The steps involved in developing a recruitment strategy include:

▪ Setting up a board team

▪ Analyzing HR strategy
▪ Collection of available data
▪ Analyzing the collected data
▪ Setting the recruitment strategy

Searching the Right Candidates

Searching is the process of recruitment where the resources are sourced depending upon the requirement of
the job. After the recruitment strategy is done, the searching of candidates will be initialized. This process
consists of two steps:

Source activation − Once the line manager verifies and permits the existence of the vacancy, the search for
candidates starts.

Selling − Here, the organization selects the media through which the communication of vacancies reaches
the prospective candidates.

Searching involves attracting the job seekers to the vacancies. The sources are broadly divided into two
categories: Internal Sources and External Sources:

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Let us now move on to the sources of recruitment.

Internal Sources of Recruitment

Internal sources of recruitment refer to hiring employees within the organization through:

▪ Promotions
▪ Transfers
▪ Former Employees
▪ Internal Advertisements (Job Posting)
▪ Employee Referrals
▪ Previous Applicants

External Sources of Recruitment

External sources of recruitment refer to hiring employees outside the organization through −

▪ Direct Recruitment
▪ Employment Exchanges
▪ Employment Agencies
▪ Advertisements
▪ Professional Associations
▪ Campus Recruitment
▪ Word of Mouth

Screening / Shortlisting

Screening starts after completion of the process of sourcing the candidates. Screening is the process of filtering
the applications of the candidates for further selection process.

Screening is an integral part of recruitment process that helps in removing unqualified or irrelevant candidates,
which were received through sourcing. The screening process of recruitment consists of three steps −
Reviewing of Resumes and Cover Letters

Reviewing is the first step of screening candidates. In this process, the resumes of the candidates are reviewed
and checked for the candidates’ education, work experience, and overall background matching the requirement
of the job

While reviewing the resumes, an HR executive must keep the following points in mind, to ensure better
screening of the potential candidates −

▪ Reason for change of job

▪ Longevity with each organization
▪ Long gaps in employment
▪ Job-hopping
▪ Lack of career progression

Conducting Telephonic or Video Interview

Conducting telephonic or video interviews is the second step of screening candidates. In this process, after the
resumes are screened, the candidates are contacted through phone or video by the hiring manager. This
screening process has two outcomes −

It helps in verifying the candidates, whether they are active and available.

It also helps in giving a quick insight about the candidate’s attitude, ability to answer interview questions, and

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communication skills.

Identifying the top candidates

Identifying the top candidates is the final step of screening the resumes/candidates. In this process, the
cream/top layer of resumes are shortlisted, which makes it easy for the hiring manager to take a decision. This
process has the following three outcomes:

● Shortlisting 5 to 10 resumes for review by the hiring managers

● Providing insights and recommendations to the hiring manager
● Helps the hiring managers to take a decision in hiring the right candidate

Evaluation and Control

Evaluation and control is the last stage in the process of recruitment. In this process, the effectiveness and the
validity of the process and methods are assessed. Recruitment is a costly process; hence it is important that
the performance of the recruitment process is thoroughly evaluated.

Why effective recruitment is important?

⮚ To attract the right applicants for the employer’s open positions.

⮚ Even when unemployment rate are high, many employers have trouble finding qualified
applicants.
⮚ About two-third of the manufacturing executives surveyed a few years ago faced a
moderate to severed shortage of skilled labor.
⮚ A recent Lloyd’s of London risk index listed “talent and skill shortages” as the number 2 risk
facing businesses today.
⮚ CIPD (2015) reports that over ¾ of organizations in its survey have experienced recruitment
difficulties. These were particularly severe for managerial, professional and technical staff.

On the other hand, let us also discuss the selection process.

Selection is a long and tedious process. Every candidate has to pass through several hurdles before he/she
can get selected for job.

The selection process can be defined as the process of selection and shortlisting of the right candidates with
the necessary qualifications and skill set to fill the vacancies in an organization. The selection process varies
from industry to industry, company to company and even amongst departments of the same company.

Every organization creates a selection process because they have their own requirements. Although, the main
steps remain the same. So, let’s understand in brief how the selection process works.

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The selection process may differ according to the types of jobs.

The most common practices are outlined below:

1. Screening and Job specifications

2. Application form
3. Preliminary interview
4. Employment tests
5. Employment interview
6. Checking Reference and Medical examination
7. Final selection & Job offer

This sequence of steps may not necessarily be followed in the given order. Medical examination for example
may, in some cases, follow the job offer.

Step # 1. Preliminary Interview

In most of the organizations, the selection program begins with preliminary interview or screening. Under this
process, an organization gives the necessary information about the job requirements to the prospective
applicants and collects the necessary information from the candidates. If a candidate is found suitable, then an
application form is given to him to fill it and submit otherwise he is eliminated at this stage only.

Step # 2. Receiving Applications

The candidates who pass the preliminary interview are asked to fill up blank application form specially designed
to extract information from the candidate about him. An application form is required to be filled in where
recruitment is made through external sources.

The forms are required to be filled in by the candidates in their own handwriting.

It requires the applicant to fill in all information that is related to the job, for example, name, age, qualification,
specialization, experience, etc. No personal information is required to be filled up. The information should be
relevant to the post he has applied for.

Step # 3. Screening of Applications

After the applications are received, they are screened by a screening committee and a list is prepared of the

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candidates to be interviewed. Applicants may be called for interview on some specific criteria like desired age
group, experience and qualifications.

Step # 4. Employment Tests

The candidate, having cleared the preliminary interview, has to take up some pre- employment tests. This is
done to further screen the candidates by testing their skills on the job.

Tests help managers in finding the most suitable candidate for the job. Individuals differ in almost all aspects
be it physical characteristics, capacity, level of mental ability, their likes and dislikes and they also differ with
respect to personality traits

Various tests that are conducted to judge the intelligence and aptitude of the candidates are as follows:

▪ Ability test
▪ Aptitude tests
▪ Personality tests
▪ Performance tests
▪ Interest tests
▪ Employment tests are widely used for judging the applicant’s suitability for the job.
▪
Step # 5. Employment Interview

Employment interview (also termed as face-to-face interview) before final selection is a vital step which not only
acts as a check on the information already obtained but also provides an opportunity to form a better
understanding of the candidates’ personality, knowledge, skills and competence.

The candidate, in turn, shall also be supplied with information about the organization and the job, in particular
to motivate him and inform him about the nature of job, policy of the company, rules and regulations of the
company, future prospects, salary and other benefits the company can offer.

Interview by a panel or board is more often in practice for supervisory and managerial positions. Sometimes
candidates are interviewed in small groups rather than individually. They are given a particular problem (or a
little case study) and asked to reach a decision through discussion within a certain time. Some observers watch
how the candidates interact with each other reflecting qualities of leadership, communication, persuasion, etc.

Step # 6. Checking References

Applicants are often required to name the persons to whom references may be made about the candidate’s
character and suitability for the job. Two types of references may be required- Character reference as a potential
source of information regarding the general character of the applicant and former employer reference. One who
may be able to speak about the applicant’s earlier work.

Checking on the references is considered to be helpful in selecting employees particularly those to be assigned
heavy responsibilities. The prospective employer normally makes an investigation on the references supplied
by the applicant.

Step # 7. Medical Examination

The medical test of a candidate is an important step in the selection procedure. Medical examination of the
candidate may be required for to ensure that the candidate is physically fit for the job.

Step # 8. Final Selection and Appointment Letter:

On completion of the selection procedure, candidates are finally selected and formal letter of appointment is
issued stating the terms and conditions of employment including the pay-scale, starting salary, allowances and
other benefits, probation period, etc.

You may also access lecture notes about recruitment & selection at these sites:
https://www.studocu.com/en-gb/document/university-of-bath/human-resource-management/lecture-

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notes/lecture-3-recruitment-lec-3-notes/1485103/view
https://www.studocu.com/en-gb/document/university-of-surrey/human-resource-management/lecture-
notes/hrm-4-recruitment-and-selection/1576849/view
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/recruitment-1918242
https://www.coursera.org/lecture/recruiting-hiring-onboarding-employees/3-1-1-selection-process-overview-
J2bOI

LEARNING ACTIVITY 6: Writing a Recruitment and Selection plan & Job Interview

SUMMARY

▪ Recruitment is the process which aims to attract suitably qualified candidates for a job from which it
is possible to select a competent person.
▪ Recruitment process is a process of identifying the jobs vacancy, analyzing the job requirements,
reviewing applications, screening, shortlisting and selecting the right candidate.
▪ Recruitment process is the first step in creating a powerful resource base. The process undergoes a
systematic procedure starting from sourcing the resources to arranging and conducting interviews and
finally selecting the right candidates.
▪ Screening starts after completion of the process of sourcing the candidates. Screening is the process
of filtering the applications of the candidates for further selection process.
▪ The selection process can be defined as the process of selection and shortlisting of the right candidates
with the necessary qualifications and skill set to fill the vacancies in an organization. The selection
process varies from industry to industry, company to company and even amongst departments of the
same company.
▪ On completion of the selection procedure, candidates are finally selected and formal letter of
appointment is issued stating the terms and conditions of employment including the pay-scale, starting
salary, allowances and other benefits, probation period, etc.

REFERENCES

Banaag, Francis, et.al. (2016). Recruitment & Selection. Manila, Philippines: Unlimited Books Library
Services and Publishing Inc.

Barboza, N., et. al (2019) Job Analysis and Design. Manila, Philippines: Unlimited Books Library Services
and Publishing Inc.

Lauron, D.P. (2019). Human Resources Management (Principles and Practices). Manila, Philippines: Rex
Bookstore.

Electronic Sources:

What Hiring and Recruiting Trends Affect Recruiting Employees?

Retrieved from:
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/recruitment-1918242

Recruitment and Selection

Retrieved from:
https://www.studocu.com/en-gb/document/university-of-bath/human-resource-management/lecture-
notes/lecture-3-recruitment-lec-3-notes/1485103/view

Recruitment Process
Retrieved from:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/recruitment_and_selection/recruitment_process.htm

Practical Application: Writing a Recruitment Plan

Retrieved from:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/practical-application-writing-a-recruitment-plan.html

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Selection Process Overview

Retrieved from:
https://www.coursera.org/lecture/recruiting-hiring-onboarding-employees/3-1-1-selection-process-overview-
J2bOI

Selection Process
Retrieved from:
https://www.toppr.com/guides/business-management-and-entrepreneurship/human-resource-
management/selection-process/

Selection Process in HRM

Retrieved from:
https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/human-resource-management-2/selection-process-in-hrm-a-
complete-guide/18600

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