The Employee Recruitment Process
- The recruitment and selection process details the steps a business takes when bringing new employees into a business
- A manager or HR employee is usually nominated to manage the application process
- This person (possibly together with others) will draw up a shortlist of candidates from the applications received
- The shortlist is a list of candidates who are invited to interview or asked to complete an assessment tas
Diagram of the Stages in the Recruitment Process
The recruitment process starts by defining the role the business wants applicants to apply for
Step 1: Defining the role
- Businesses should determine exactly what is required and part of that is developing a job description and a person/job specification
- A job specification (sometimes known as a person specification) outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and personal qualities required from a candidate for a specific job e.g. problem solver, good communicator, able to code in Java etc.
- A job description outlines the duties, responsibilities, and requirements of a particular job
Comparison of the Person Specification and Job Description
Job Specification |
Job Description |
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Step 2: Identifying the source of required employees
- Internal recruitment involves a business promoting or redeploying workers that already work for them
- Internal recruitment can be beneficial as it encourages employee development, builds morale and can save time and money on training
- External recruitment involves bringing in new workers from outside of the business
- External recruitment can bring fresh ideas, experiences and perspectives to the organization
- External recruitment can bring fresh ideas, experiences and perspectives to the organization
Step 3: Advertising the role
- Roles may be advertised internally or externally
- If the business is seeking an internal candidate business newsletters, staff noticeboards or internal email can be used to display job advertisements
- Line managers may be asked to recommend suitable candidates following appraisals
- Line managers may be asked to recommend suitable candidates following appraisals
- External candidates can be targeted with advertisements in newspapers, industry magazines, specialist recruitment websites, agencies and government-run agencies
- Existing employees may be asked to nominate people they know for roles - sometimes they receive a reward of their nominee is successfully recruited
- Headhunting can be used to fill high level roles
- Businesses with a strong social media presence can use these platforms to advertise cost effectively e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok
- Specialist recruitment portals may be used to advertise
- These tend to be expensive but target specific groups of potential applicants
- E.g. The Times Educational Supplement is one of the main publications in the UK used to recruit teaching staff
- These tend to be expensive but target specific groups of potential applicants
- If the business is seeking an internal candidate business newsletters, staff noticeboards or internal email can be used to display job advertisements
Step 4: Receiving applications
- The business may accept applications from candidates via Curriculum Vitae (CV) and covering letter or application form
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- A curriculum vitae should be well laid out and clear and usually contains the following details:
- Name and contact details
- Qualifications and work experience
- Positions of responsibility
- Interests
- The names and addresses of referees
- The accompanying letter of application should outline
- Why the applicant wants the job
- Why they would be suitable for the advertised role
- A curriculum vitae should be well laid out and clear and usually contains the following details:
- Application forms are often preferred in place of a CV
- They usually ask for the same information as the CV
- Sometimes further information that is specific to the job is requested
- Applications from a selection of candidates can be easily compared
- Many application forms are now completed online
Comparison of Application Methods
Application Form |
Curriculum Vitae (CV) |
Covering Letter |
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