What is 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. Many companies utilise recruiting software to more effectively and efficiently source top candidates. Regardless, recruitment typically works in conjunction with, or as a part of Human Resources.
What is recruiting in HRM?
Human Resource Management, otherwise known as HRM or HR for short, is the function of people management within an organization. HR is responsible for facilitating the overall goals of the organization through effective administration of human capital — focusing on employees as the company’s most important asset.
Recruitment is the first step in building an organization’s human capital. At a high level, the goals are to locate and hire the best candidates, on time, and on budget.
What does recruitment involve?
While the recruitment process is unique to each organization, there are 15 essential steps of the hiring process. We’ve listed them here, but for a detailed exploration of these steps, check out our page on Hiring processing steps
- Identify the hiring need
- Devise a recruitment plan
- Write a job description
- Advertise the position
- Recruit the position
- Review applications
- Phone Interview/Initial Screening
- Interviews
- Applicant Assessment
- Background Check
- Decision
- Reference Check
- Job offer
- Hiring
- Onboarding.
Types of recruiting
There are several types of recruiting. Here’s an overview:
Internal Recruiting: internal recruiting involves filling vacancies with existing employees from within an organization.
Retained Recruiting: When organization hire a recruiting firm, there are several ways to do so; retained recruiting is a common one. When an organization retains a recruiting firm to fill a vacancy, they pay an upfront fee to fill the position. The firm is responsible for finding candidates until the position is filled. The organization also agrees to work exclusively with the firm. Companies cannot, in other words, hire multiple recruiting firms to fill the same position.
Contingency Recruiting: like retained recruiting, contingency recruiting requires an outside firm. Unlike retained recruiting, there is no upfront fee with contingency. Instead, the recruitment company receives payment only when the clients they represent are hired by an organization.
Staffing Recruiting: staffing recruiters work for staffing agencies. Staffing recruiting matches qualified applicants with qualified job openings. Moreover, staffing agencies typically focus on short-term or temporary employment positions.
Outplacement Recruiting: outplacement is typically an employer-sponsored benefit which helps former employees transition into new jobs. Outplacement recruiting is designed to provide displaced employees with the resources to find new positions or careers.
Reverse Recruiting: refers to the process whereby an employee is encouraged to seek employment with a different organization that offers a better fit for their skill set. We offer Reverse recruiting days to help workers with this process. At our Reverse Recruiting Days we review resumes, conduct mock interviews, and offer deep dives into specific job roles.