Introduction
Recruitment is one of the management functions that are usually conducted through the human resource department. Technically, recruitment is defined as the “process of identifying and hiring the best qualified candidate from within or outside an organisation for a job opening in the most timely and cost effective manner” (French & Rumbles 2005, p.170).
In this process, the management plays pivotal roles in ensuring that the process is administered effectively and efficiently so that an organisation reaps optimally from the benefits of the candidate selected from a pool of applicants who possess different experiences and technical expertise. The implementation of the recruitment process is also done in a manner that ensures precise compliance to the set recruitment policies.
Some of these policies include “affirmative action, equal opportunity employment, and non-discrimination” (French & Rumbles 2005, p.170). For this reason, the specific things that the recruiting personnel look out from the applicants are set out before the recruitment is done. These specifics are laid out in the form of the job description.
To come up with a concise and accurate job description, the human resource must work in collaboration within the hiring manager to develop it. In the same light, Fernando (2008) argues, “reviewing a job description is an efficient procedure to continually improve an organisation’s structure, as well as evaluating the competencies and wages for each position within the organisation” (p.8).
Given the set out procedures and policies by an organisation for the administration of the process of recruitment, the main interrogative is how effective the concepts of recruitment are in ensuring that an organisation only hires those persons who only have outstanding qualifications. The focus of the paper is to give response to this query.
Effectiveness of concepts of recruitment
Merging talent management with recruitment
An immense scholarly body of knowledge exists that attempts to set out the roles of recruitment in management of an organisation. Many approaches and models of recruitment have also been proposed with the chief intention of availing paradigms of approaching recruitment so that an organisation would secure highly professional capable workforce.
These models include executive search, RPO, retained search, outplacement, and contingency hiring among others. While fully aware of the alternative ways through which an organisation can conduct recruitment, Fernando (2008) argues that talent management is a noble function that the recruitment team needs to consider (p.2).
Indeed, he advocates for adoption of a holistic approach by management as the most suitable, effective and efficient approach of conducting recruitment.
The main reason why an organisation commits its resources to conduct the recruitment process by either delegating the responsibility to the human resource department or outsourcing the service externally is to make sure that only the best candidates fill the job openings (French & Rumbles 2005, p.170).
Apparently, an organisation utilises people as capital so that it can generate more services and goods, which is necessary for organisations to become more profitable. Arguably, this entails commoditisation of people within an organisation.
When this concept is applied to the recruitment process, it infers that the persons who would stand the highest probability of being selected are those who show and prove to the recruiting personnel that, through their physical effort, mental effort, or both, they can take the organisation to the next level in terms of enhancing its profitability.
The argument here is that the central focus of recruitment is to tap professional talent from the pool of existing potential employees so that it can be utilised in the realisation of goals, missions, and aims of organisations. In recruitment, talent management is critical in enhancing the capacity of an organisation to select the right persons to fill job vacancies.
The concept of talents management has three paradigms: talent identification, development of talent and talent motivation, and retention and engagement (Fernando 2008, p.1). The human resource management arm of an organisation enhances all these three aspects.
Ideally, for effectiveness of recruitment in helping to enhance talent management in organisations, it is significant for it to be modeled to assume a central position in the entire process of talent development. This way, it can be utilised to ensure that it can be “directed to support strategic management efforts to address the competitive dynamics of businesses enabling the organisation to win the market” (Fernando 2008, p.2).
Wining the market implies increased potential of an organisation to place successfully its products and services. Therefore, the whole idea of talent management and its relationship with recruitment revolves around the needs to enhance the growth of an organisation’s productivity through commoditisation of the workforce.
The success of recruitment functions in enabling an organisation to acquire human resources that would help it to face interactively with the future business dynamics is owed to the capacity of management to establish a link between recruitment and the future needs of the organisation in question.
Fernando (2008) supports this argument by further positing, “Talent gaps to be filled through recruitment need to be defined from a strategic perspective” (p.3). Therefore, in case recruitment functions such as selecting and sourcing are accomplished from the dimension of old approaches that are outdated and narrow, a possibility surfaces that the concept of alignment of talent management with recruitment would be impaired.
Consequently, “each key position filled needs to result to the organisation having a better aligned talent pool in terms of current competencies and or access to high potentials with the capability of being developed to meet the future strategic needs” (Fernando 2008, pp. 3-4). In the quest to achieve this, integration of a holistic approach to selection becomes crucial.
Many organisations conduct recruitment after clearly defining the profiles of the desired person to fill a job opening, which is the approach of ‘ideal candidate’ recruitment. It seeks to “find the candidates with the required knowledge, skills, experience, behaviour, and attitude” (Fernando 2008, p.4).
Comparatively, for the case of deployment of the holistic approach/model in recruitment, the chief concern is to evaluate and make sure that the selected candidate strongly fits with the organisation, the boss, work team, and the job requirements coupled with the anticipations of the position for which he or she is being recruited. After successfully recruiting the desired candidate, induction and training follow.
However, through a holistic approach, such training would arguably consume less time since the model holds that the best candidate is the one who meets the demand of the organisational culture and values that guide the performance of the existing workforce of an organisation. Besides, he/she should fit well and work with a diverse work team.
Nevertheless, under the holistic approach/model to recruitment, the traditional approach is also not negated. Therefore, the selected candidate must also meet the experience, knowledge competencies, contacts, and skills that are set for the position.
The tools that are deployed in the selection process under the holistic approach make the approach highly effective in enabling an organisation to get the right person who not only has the requisite professional qualification but one who can easily articulate with the set out codes of ethics and organisational culture. Such tools include psychometric tests, interviews that are competency-based, and skill tests among others.
Psychometric tests are conducted to facilitate the evaluation of aspects such as personality, values, altitudes, and beliefs of the potential employee. On the other hand, skill testing is conducted to provide a means of evaluating the past behaviour and the particular skills possessed by the candidate.
Consequently, the concept of the holistic approach to recruitment is enormously significant in ensuring that an organisation is capable to recruit a learning workforce. Such a workforce would introduce less friction when it comes to compliance with organisational culture.
Recruitment: Leading, Developing, and Managing people
Stemming from the arguments of the above section, the concept of the holistic approach to recruitment is ingrained within the concerns of providing mechanisms of enhancing the management to achieve one of its noble functions: recruiting in a manner that is efficient and effective. However, management has additional functions, which more often than not are interrelated.
Such functions include leading, developing, and managing people. Consequently, it is crucial to examine how recruitment relates to these functions. In chapter 9 of Recruitment and Selection, French and Rumbles argue out that recruitment coupled with selection “play pivotal roles in the process of leading, managing, and developing people” ( 2005, p.171).
The connection between leading, developing, and managing people is pegged on the argument that, in the absence of recruitment, people cannot be availed to an organisation for being developed, managed, and or led.
Arguably, therefore, the entire idea of either employing or choosing not to employ is enshrined within the umbrella of managing people effectively within an organisation to realise the goals, aims, and missions of an organisation. However, in the recruitment process, fairness is of utmost importance.
In this regard, French and Rumbles lament, “issues associated with exclusion from the work place also highlight the need for professionalism, fairness, and ethical behaviour on the part of those engaged in the activity” (2005, p.173 ). Consequently, the model deployed to acquire human resource in an organisation (recruitment) does not matter.
Rather, recruiting the right persons is dependent on factors such as fairness and elimination of unethical conducts during the recruiting process. For the success of an organisation in executing its managerial functions of leading and managing people to yield optimal performance, the available workforce should be committed to the organisational culture and strategic goals.
Such a workforce is availed through recruitment. In support this line of argument, French and Rumbles argue, “Recruitment occurs not just to replace departmental employees or to add workforce, rather, it aims to put in place workers who can perform at a high level and demonstrate commitment” (2005, p.171).
This implies that recruitment plays proactive roles in making it possible for an organisation to attain organisational performance and outcomes that are positive. Fernando (2008) argues that recruitment needs to be factored in organisation’s approaches to strategic management (p.4).
French and Rumbles also recognise the significance of this concern by further asserting, “recruitment is often presented as a planned rational activity comprising certain sequentially-linked phases within a process of employee resourcing, which itself may be located within a wider HR management strategy” (p.178).
In this sense, recruitment may be perceived as involving a topical issue while attempting to seek the manner in which it enhances the management to achieve its noble functions.
Apparently, when the discipline of human resource emerged, recruitment has significantly contributed towards helping the management to cutely manage and lead the organisation’s workforce because, without the right workforce, orienting it to the desired ends (leading) is a nightmare.
Essentially, the contribution of an enhanced recruitment process in aiding the management to execute its managerial functions is more significant in the age where many organisations are considering the employees as the most subtle resources for achieving a competitive advantage.
Conclusion
In any organisation, the management has a number of responsibilities. Among them is the need to lead, develop, and management people. The people who are led, developed, and managed are acquired through the process of recruitment and selection. In this paper, it has been argued that the organisation’s workforce is an essential resource that enables the organisation to produce services and goods.
For optimal profitability of the organisation, the paper has held that it is crucial that recruitment is done so that only persons who can be oriented to the specific missions, goals, and aims of an organisation are hired.
Consequently, the paper discussed that it is crucial to conduct recruitment from the concept that an organisation seeks people who would provide easy grounds for the management to conduct its functions of management among them being leading, developing, and managing of people. In this end, the concept of talent management and its relationship with recruitment is crucial.
References
Fernando, K 2008, ‘Aligning Recruitment to Talent Management Efforts’, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, vol.3 no.1, pp. 1-7.
French, R & Rumbles, S 2005, Recruitment and Selection, Mc Graw- Hill, New York, NY.