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Recruitment and Selection Introduction- Recruitment is referred to as the procedure of attracting, short-listing, and selecting of a qualified candidate for a particular job. Today, a majority of organizations in any industry prefer to outsource the recruiting process to recruitment agencies.
The recruitment industry can be found in four major forms, viz. employment agencies, recruitment web portals and job search engines, head hunters, and niche agencies referred to for filling professional and executive positions. Employment agencies transact with trades, clerical, and temporary for hiring employment opportunities. Recruitment web portals and job search engines are used to shortlist all candidates who stand close to the requirement of specific job tasks, by way of advertisements over a wide geographic location.
A professional recruiter has the ability to read the resumes thoroughly and screen them, thereafter talk to the potential candidates and provide a shortlisted group of candidates to the hiring organization. The head-hunter firms are hired on either contingency basis or full-time, who take on the responsibility of using their networks as their source of hunting the right candidates. Niche agencies are hired for their specialization in a specific industrial area of staffing.
Some organizations make use of ‘employer branding strategy’ and ‘internal recruiting’ instead of hiring the services of a professional recruitment firm. Where internal recruiting would always focus upon filling a single opening, a professional recruiting firm looks for talent for all positions to be filled. The benefit of deploying the latter is that they are capable of finding a qualified candidate through appropriate networking; this is what they refer to as Talent Management. Further, professional interviewing services can also be hired for, in order to gauge the candidate’s skills, qualities and if he or she can fit into the organization.
The professional recruiting firm hired for the same, first meets with the organization’s HR/hiring manager to understand the position and record the details of the vacant position before starting with the hunting process and informing their network of the requirement. Besides, these agencies also prepare the screened candidates for the rounds of interviews in the organizations, provide respective feedback about the candidates to the organizations and are also responsible for handling compensation packages/negotiations.
Practice Questions
Q1. Which of the following is NOT a stage in the recruitment process?
a. Sourcing candidates
b. Pre-screening candidates
c. Conducting interviews
d. Evaluating employee performance
Correct Answer: d. Evaluating employee performance
Q2. Which of the following methods of sourcing candidates is NOT a passive approach?
a. Job postings on online job boards
b. Employee referrals
c. Social media recruiting
d. Cold-calling potential candidates
Correct Answer: d. Cold-calling potential candidates
Q3. Which of the following is an example of a structured interview question?
a. “What do you like to do in your free time?”
b. “Tell me about a time when you had to handle a difficult situation at work.”
c. “What are your salary expectations?”
d. “What do you know about our company?”
Correct Answer: b. “Tell me about a time when you had to handle a difficult situation at work.”
Q4. Which of the following is an advantage of using multiple selection methods?
a. It can be completed more quickly than using a single method.
b. It is less expensive than using a single method.
c. It provides a more comprehensive view of the candidate’s skills and abilities.
d. It is less prone to bias than using a single method.
Correct Answer: c. It provides a more comprehensive view of the candidate’s skills and abilities.
Q5. Which of the following is NOT a potential source of bias in the selection process?
a. Unconscious bias
b. Stereotyping
c. Candidate qualifications
d. Halo effect
Correct Answer: c. Candidate qualification
