Recruitment is the process of searching and attracting potential applicants to a company. All companies, at one time or another, engage in recruiting activity, though the extent to which it is carried out, vary1. The two factors are size and rate of expansion. The job of recruitment often falls to the personnel manager. His recruitment efforts determine the pool from which to select applicants for the company. The personnel manager could fill positions by promotion from within. This means that the employees in the organisation are given the opportunity to be promoted to fill vacancies.
Persons from outside the organisation may also fill positions2. To the extent possible, most organisations try to follow a policy of filling job vacancies above the entry-level position through promotions and transfers. One study reveals that 76 percent of the responding participants filled more than half of their supervisory and managerial openings through internal promotion3. By filling vacancies through internal promotions and transfers, an organisation can capitalize on the costs that it has invested in recruiting and training its current employees4. Through Advertisements
One of the most common and popular practices is to announce vacancies in newspapers. These advertisements inform the public of openings in certain companies. In a typical advertisement, there could be a short description of the general job duties, followed by a listing of the qualifications and description of the persons who would be suited for the job. Interested readers are invited to write, call, or go for interviews5. Through institutions Sometimes the company would approach the colleges or educational institutions, when they are seeking fresh entrants to the labour force.
The public relations department and instructors in the different schools may serve in some liaison capacity between employer and students6. Through Recommendations Employees may also recommend friends or relatives to work for the company. The company sometimes encourages this method. Some firms offer incentives to workers for recommending their friends to the company7. Other Methods Candidates can on their own initiative write to companies offering their services. This could be another source of workers. Firms may file these for reference when vacancies occur. Companies may also seek the help of employment agencies.
The methods listed above are not comprehensive. Recruitment methods differ, limited perhaps by imagination, cost, and practicality. It should be noted that recruitment efforts take place in the context of an organisation – its location, size, growth potential, opportunities for development, work environment, and general reputation. All these factors interact and affect the type of applicant that may be attracted to work in any company. For example, some factories in Singapore choose to be located near housing estates so that they can recruit more easily workers from that locality8.
The movements of jobs and a larger portion of the population of the suburbs have been disastrous for unemployed persons living in the central city. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of those left behind are the minorities who, as a group, have the highest rate of unemployment. More than 60 percent of the nations unemployed are blacks, for example, live in the central cities9. Those who might be able to qualify for jobs with employers in the suburbs become trapped in the core area of the city because of the absence of transportation and resources to commute to work outside the core area.
Still, close to half of all black workers employed in the suburbs commute from the central city as compared with only 16percent of the total (largely white) suburban workers. Ironically, improvements in the public transportation systems to facilitate “reverse commuting” have not proven too successful. A major reason has been the low wages offered by suburban employers willing to hire central residents10. 11 Recruitment efforts take place in the context of an organisation – its location, size, growth potential, opportunities for development, work environment, and general reputation.
For this reason the recruitment process is different within different firms. For example, the two firms that will be discussed are Samsang and The Daniel’s Group. Electronics giant, Samsung usually recruits about four graduates for entry-level positions in Australia. It is not economical to have a graduate recruitment team in their HR department. Instead, Samsung Electronics Australia’s National Human Resources and Operations Manager Rob Matzen has outsourced graduate recruitment to a specialist agency.
In the same way, his executive appointments and call centre recruitment are also placed with specialist agencies12. “We want to get the right exposure and the right candidates -to find recruitment companies that are up to speed in their market. It’s part of our overall recruitment strategy to enter into partnerships with these companies”, Mr Matzen says. “Our graduate recruitment company also offers sourceing and marketing on-campus and international recruitment options for our Asian subsidiaries. ” he adds13.
