Formal and Informal Recruitment Processes in Organizations - Essay Example

Human Resource Management - Portfolio Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Defining Recruitment 3 Literature Review 4 Informal Recruitment 5 Formal Recruitment 6 Analysis 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Appendix 11 Recruitment Documents 11 Introduction This report will present a brief overview of recruitment and the processes used by organizations to hire new people. The report also proposes to shed light on the concepts of formal and informal recruitment. Merits and demerits of each of the recruitment process will be also portrayed. In addition, literature review of the area of study will be also carried out. After the literature review, the report will analyse how the different aspects such as job advert, job description, person specification, interview checklist and induction program helps a company to embrace systematic and fair recruitment. Finally based on the analysis and findings from the study a conclusion will be drawn. Defining Recruitment There are several definitions of recruitment exist. Eminent scholars such as Andrews defined recruitment as the process of discovering prospective talents for a particular job (Andrews, 1988, p.94). In simple words recruitment can be also portrayed as a method by which potential applicants are attracted for some kind of jobs in the organization. The process of recruitment is generally divided into two type namely formal recruitment process and informal recruitment process. However the process to be adopted for the purpose of recruitment varies from one company to the other. Literature Review A number of scholars believe that employees are the central part of an organization as without the human resource, functioning of the organization will become literally impossible. A number of scholars around the world has researched in this subject and portrayed their views. Hence it is expected that large amount of literature regarding the recruitment process will be found. According to Randhawa (2007) recruitment is a process of searching the prospective candidates and inspiring them to apply for the employment in the organization. It can be also referred to as the method by which organization generates a pool of educated and eligible applicants. Hence from the author’s point of view recruitment is simply searching for potential employees for a particular job. Whether an organization follows informal or formal recruitment process, it should have a well defined recruitment policy. Similarly regarding the recruitment process, Bohlander and Snell (2007) stated that the sources of recruiting a candidate can be classified into formal and informal sources. The informal recruitment process is about recruiting the employees with the help of existing employee referral. On the other hand formal sources of recruitment can be illustrated as the process of recruitment thorough the help of employment groups, advertisements and through the process of campus interviews. Meanwhile, Ghindar (2009) highlighted organizations nowadays are also focusing to make recruitment process more transparent in order to ensure every candidates get equal chances of selection. Hence organizations are now making use of information technology to make the process smoother. In addition, recruitment involves large number of decision making and some kind of administrative practices. Thus the HR department needs to have all the information available so as to make a sound decision. In the present business environment organizations are therefore using recruitments and programs and software to track applicants and make vital decisions. Informal Recruitment Informal recruitment is anything which does not follows any formal process of recruitment. Informal recruitment is highlighted as the recruitment with the help of word of mouth. In the management level it is portrayed as headhunting. However a number of recruiters do not considers this recruitment method as they perceive, it will not offer opportunities to several other potential candidates, who will not even come across the news of this recruitment. With the help of social media networking and employing different ‘soft marketing’ a number of recruiters around the world are searching for the potential candidates. This is the place where the recruiters make use of applicant mapping software to record data of the excellent candidates. In this way informal recruitment is carried out (Declan, 2011). Some of the merits and demerits of informal recruitment are highlighted below:- Merits: - 1. Informal recruitment method is one of the most cost effective methods of hiring new employees (Brewster and Mayrhofer, 2010, p.122). 2. It reduces the expenses of the company to a large extent. For example costs pertaining to advertisements, search related costs are highly minimized. 3. It saves time and minimal efforts are needed to recruit the candidates. 4. It increases the chances of finding the most appropriate candidates and thus maximized the job match. Demerits: - 1. The number of applicants is very much limited and the recruitment nature is unethical to some extent. 2. There can be departmental conflicts in an organization as each department will refer employees. This may even lead to the disruption of the company’s integrity. Formal Recruitment In formal recruitment a prescribed guideline is followed to recruit the new employees. The key towards an effectual formal recruitment is to have proper advertising strategy and to define the right job specification. Such activities help in attracting the best candidates for the job. The strength of formal recruitment not only remains constrained in the capability to attract the best candidates for the specified position but also the technology and software used for managing them in the system. Nowadays, the HR department of an organization are using information technology like never before. Tools such as applicant tracker are revolutionizing the formal recruitment process. Some of the merits and demerits of the formal recruitment process are highlighted below:- Merits: - 1. It helps to select the best employee from the pool of potential candidates. 2. It highly promotes the discipline of the organization. 3. Formal recruitment generates clarity within the organization. 4. A fair recruitment is possible. 5. It minimizes any chances of departmental collision or any form of organizational clash which may arise due to recruitment. Demerits: - 1. The cost of recruitment increases substantially, in comparison with the informal recruitment. 2. The process of recruitment also becomes lengthy. The study reveals that both the forms of recruitment have some kind of merits and demerits, but depending upon the situation, organizations selects the recruitment process. However, in general organizations around the world consider formal recruitment as the most suitable method. The primary rationale behind preferring this recruitment method is that, organizations remains fair, ethical and also gets a number of choices and thus holds the opportunity to select the best candidate from the pool of applicants (Gatewood, Feild and Barrick, 2010, p.317). However there are some factors which further enable the originations to embrace a systematic and fair selection. These factors are job advert, job description, person specification, and induction program and interview checklist. The importance of the aforementioned factors is described in the next section of the project. Analysis In this context of the study several factors such as job description, job advert, specification of person etc. highly assists in conducting the recruitment process transparently and efficiently. The aforementioned factors are detailed below:- Job Advert: - The other name of job advert is job advertisement. It is basically a process to attract and pull large number of employees towards the organization with the help advertisement. The process of job advertisement is about announcing the job openings of a company (Dransfield and Needham, 2005, p.65). The advertisements for a job are generally developed by the company itself or sometime the company may outsource it to some other advertisement agencies. It also offers huge benefits to the organization. A job advert appeals to a large number of potential candidates and also makes the recruitment process fair. Job description: - A job description list clearly highlights the responsibilities and functions associated with a position (Cambridge Dictionaries Online, n.d.). It also illustrates some of the useful information related to the job. For example eligibility criteria, salary and also the job role are presented in the job description list. The biggest advantage of having a job description list is that, it minimizes the chances of miscommunication and also makes the recruitment process transparent Person specification: - Person specification is the method by which a company announces the desired candidate profile and background for a particular job. It specifies the required knowledge, skill, experience and expertise level of the candidate required. Hence it assists the applicants to properly analyse the requirement and apply accordingly for the job (Yeung, 2010, p.15-17). This makes the recruitment systematic and minimizes the task of sorting uncalled applications. Interview checklist: - An interview checklist often helps the recruiters to remain consistent and organized while recruiting candidates. Induction program: - It is one of the vital components of a recruitment process to become systematic as well as fair. Induction program is the process used by the organizations to train new employees. It improves the communication and thus helps in proper function of the employee. Conclusion The report was about the study of formal and informal recruitment processes. The study revealed that both the forms of recruitment have some form of merits and demerits. However most of the organizations around the world embrace formal recruitment. In addition several factors such as job advertisements, job description, induction program etc. plays a major role in remaining systematic and organized. Hence it can be concluded that organizations must give highest priority to the aforementioned factors. References Andrews, Y., 1988. The Personnel Function. Pretoria: Pearson South Africa. Bohlander, G. W., and Snell, S., 2007. Managing Human Resources. 14th ed. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Brewster, C., and Mayrhofer, W., 2010. Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Cambridge Dictionaries Online, No Date. Job Description. [online] Available at: < http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/job-des-cription> [Accessed 23 November 2012]. Declan., 2011. Human resources: formal vs. informal recruitment. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 November 2012]. Dransfield, R., and Needham, D., 2005. GCE AS Level Applied Business Double Award for OCR. Oxford: Heinemann. Gatewood, R. D., Feild, H. S., and Barrick, M., 2010. Human Resource Selection. 7th ed. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Ghindar, A., 2009. Why Go Democratic? Civil Service Reform in Central and Eastern Europe. Michigan: ProQuest. Randhawa, G., 2007. Human Resource Management. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Dist. Yeung, R., 2010. Successful Interviewing and Recruitment. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Appendix Recruitment Documents Job Advert XYZ Ltd. requires the service of young and qualified person in order to fill the position of Marketing Manager. No. Of Vacancies: 5 Posting: Anywhere in Europe Salary: Best in the Industry Job Description The person will be responsible for maintaining and developing new marketing strategies to meet the objectives of the organization. In addition, he/she should be responsible for evaluating market condition, competitor standings, and identifying consumer demands. In the overseas market he/she will be responsible for administering all advertising, PR and marketing activities. Person Specification MBA (Marketing) Minimum 4 years of experience in Marketing. Age: 25 – 35 years Experience in all the aspects of maintaining and developing marketing strategies and development of marketing plan. Strong customer understanding power. Willingness to travel abroad and work in a diverse group. Technical Knowledge will be an added advantage. Interview Checklist To analyse whether the candidate in an innovative and systematic thinker To find whether the candidate is self driven and motivated To find the candidate possesses technical skills To find the strategy development skills of the candidate To assess the communication and team handling capability of the candidate To find problem solving capability of the candidate Induction Program On the job training Mentoring Delegated projects and tasks E-learning Supplier and customer visit Overseas Market visit Shadowing Case study assignments Read More