Recruitment

Acquiring and retaining high quality talent is critical to an organisations success. As the job market becomes increasingly competitive and the available skills grow more diverse, recruiters need to be more selective in their choices, since poor recruiting decisions can produce long-tern negative effects. Among this, high training and development costs to minimize the incidence of poor performance and high turnover which, in turn, impact staff moral, the production of high quality goods and services and the retention of organisational memory. At worst, the organisation can fail to achieve its objectives and thereby lose its competitive edge and its share of the market (Richardson, 2011).


Recruitment is described as the set of activities and processes used to legally obtain a sufficient number of qualified people at the right place and time so that people and the organisation can select each other in their own best short and long term interests (Schuler, 1987).
In other words, its is the process of identifying and attracting a group of potential candidates from within and outside the organisation to evaluate for employment (Bernthal, 2011).


The recruitment industry has five main types of agencies: employment agencies, website and search engines, 'headhunters' for executive and professional recruitment, niche agencies which specialize in a particular area of staffing and in-house recruitment (Daswani, 2011).
Successful recruitment begins with proper employment planning and forecasting. In this phase of the staffing process, an organisation formulates plans to fill or eliminate future job openings based on an analysis of future needs, the talent available within and outside of the organisation, and the current and anticipated resources that can be expended to attract and retain such talent.
Also related to the success of a recruitment process are the strategies an organisation is prepared to employ in order to identify and select the best candidates for its developing pool of human resources. (Bunting, 2007).


Of the many strategies used in the recruitment process, one that is on the rise is the used of online recruitment sites (Williams, 2009). Online recruitment is a formal method of external recruiting which entails searching the labour market more widely for candidates with no previous connection to the organisation (Bernthal & Wellins, 2001).


Using the internet is faster and cheaper than many traditional methods of recruitment. Jobs can be posted on internet sites and can remain there for periods of thirty to sixty days if not more, and are available to be viewed twenty-four hours a day. Candidates can view detailed information about the job and organisation and then respond electronically to them.
Online recruiting also provides access to passive job seekers, that is, individuals who already have a job but would apply for what appears to be a better one that is being advertised on the internet. These job seekers maybe be of a better, quality since they are not desperate for a job change as are the active job seeker who may be frustrated, disgruntled workers looking for a new position (Byham, 1992).
Below is a good example of an recruitment campaign;

Review of Monster.co.uk Online Recruitment Site


Monster.co.uk is one of the largest employment websites in the world, owned and operated by Monster Worldwide Incorporated. It was created in 1992 by the merger of The Monster Board (TMB) and Online Career Center (OCC), which were two of the first and most popular career web sites on the internet. Monster is primarily used to help those seeking work to find job openings that match their skills and location. 


The website is set out well to allow novice users of the internet to access each area of the site easily. The main area of the website is very large with two simple searches for a specific job and the area in the UK the job is required. This makes it easy for users but then there is an area for a advanced search for more able user who no which department of work they are interested in. These advertisements show that the website is not only very accessible but also set out well.

In terms of layout, all features are attractive and least daunting. All major sections of the website are well structured with the main features indicated boldly. The text is laid out using style sheets which users can change in their browsers to make viewing easier for their individual requirements. The visual design also accommodates resizing text and relative units have been used.
Advertisements in the website make it easy for users to quickly link to different websites that offer more help with different areas of recruitment. These are set aside for the main content of the website so they do not over run the main use of the site.

The accessibility of information required from the site is quite commendable. Various features have got short notes explaining what they imply or can be used for. n example is the Batch Apply feature which is captioned with the information ' makes it easier than ever to apply to multiple jobs in one go. Try it today and save time on your job search'.


Overall apart from the advertisement of job positions, the site also provides useful information to aid people seeking employment in general as to how to prepare for interviews and write CVs. Another good point is that the easy to use options to post more than one CV confidently is very good.
A bad point is that Monster seems to have jobs from employers that have paid to post vacancies, and since the recession, most employers are defiantly tightening budgets.Monster have been blames in several instances of personal information theft. In less than two weeks, August 2007, monster had numerous leaks that resulted in the loss of millions of customers. Although Monster waited several days to announce this leak, they subsequently announced new security measures to prevent this from happening again.
However, in January 2009, there was another large scale leak at its UK based site Monster.co.uk, in which demographic information of up to 4.5 million people was obtained by hackers (Percival, 2009).


E-Recruitment Campaign (Tesco)


Tesco's online recruitment campaign caught my eye at first as it was advertised on many different sites. First of all i saw it on Google, and then also advertised on www.indeed.com which is also a job search engine which helps people find jobs.
I looked on the Tesco job section on their website and was linked the recruitment site. The website was well set out and was easy to navigate. There were many quotes from current employees that made me feel like Tesco would be a good place to work at. This is a good way of encouraging people to work at the company. One of the main reasons i like this campaign was that there was a section on the website that allowed you to see where you would fit in at the company. This is a good idea as it allowed people to see the perfect area in the company for them and has helped the online recruitment for Tesco stand out from the others like it.


Aptitude Test 


Online assessment systems allow companies to attract applications from all over the world and filter them in a time and cost effective way. More importantly, they offer a tangible way of assessing an individual's skills for a particular role and how they would fit within an organisation. For potential employees, meanwhile, online assessment can be done at a time and location that suits them and can give them a better idea of what the job is likely to involve before deciding whether to proceed with the application. 
Personally, i don't feel that aptitude tests are a very good recruitment tool for choosing who to give an interview to as an employer.There are however some benefits of using these tests. For example the employee may be better at completing tests rather than being under pressure in an interview. This will give a fairer chance for them to show their skills. However, this could be the opposite with some people who are strong during the interviewing process but weak on tests. The result of the test may cost the person a chance of getting a job. Another negative on the tests is that not everyone has the skills to be able to use the internet to its full potential, meaning that they could struggle to complete the tests. In relation to this not everyone has access to the internet which may mean that they cannot take the tests and may be looked over when it comes to selecting candidates to take forward to interview.


Conclusion


Recruiting the right employees can be a challenge, with no guarantee of success. But using the right information and procedures will improve an organisations chances of finding what it is looking for.
Whatever the strategies selected for recruiting the objective is to recruit the most qualified, committed individuals into the organisations and that the organisations achieve the objectives for which they have been established (Bratton & Gold, 2007).
Job websites offer unlimited space which can be used, by management, to sell the organisation. The site can then be used, not only to post vacancies, but also to publicize the organisation. That will allow candidates to become more familiar with the company, know what skills the company is looking for and get to know about its culture. Most importantly, the system will provide a proper path to securing quick responses to job openings. Online recruiting facilitate the decentralization of the hiring function by making it possible for other groups in the organisation to take responsibility for part of the function (Dale, 2010).






Bibliography:


Bernthal, P. R (2011) Recruitment and Selection {Online] Available from: http://www.ddiworld.com/DDIWorld/media/trend-research/recruitment-and-selection_ere_es_ddi.pdf?ext=.pdf {Accessed on: 07/05/2012}


Berthal. P. R & Wellins, R, S. (2001) Retaining Talent: A Bench-marking Study. Pittsburgh. PA: Development Dimensions International.


Bratton, J. & Gold, J. (2007) Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. 4th Edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.


Bunting, M. (1992) Skills, Training and Human Resource Development: A Critical Text. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmilan.


Byham, W, C (1992) The Assessment Center method & Methodology: New Applications and Technologies. Pittsbuurgh, PA: Development Dimensions International.


Daswani, K. (2011) Recruitment [Onliine] Available from: http://karishmadaswani.com/karishmadaswani/index.php/category/hrm-2/recruitment/ {Accessed on 07/05/2012}


Monster (2012) Site and Accessibility Information [Online] Available from: http://www.access.monster.co.uk/Accessibility.aspx {Accessed on: 07/05/2012}


Richardson, M, A. (2011) Recruitment Strategies Managing/Effecting the Recruitment Process {Online} Available from: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan021814.pdf
{Accessed on: 07/05/2012}

Schuler, R, S. (1987) Personnel and Human Resource Management. 3rd Edition. St. Educational Publishing.

Williams, H. (2009) E-recruitment: Rethinking Recruitment [Online] Available from: http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/06/09/50918/e-recruitment-rethinking-recruitment.html {Accessed on 07/05/2012}