The Strengths and Weaknesses of Internal and External Recruitment - Term Paper Example

PROVIDE AN INSIGHT INTO THE RELATIVE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT BY SUBMISSION The human resource management function, recruitment, is one of the main activities that influences significantly on the performance of an organization. Obtain and keeping high-class talent is important to an organization’s success. As the job market becomes more and more aggressive and the existing skills grow more diverse, recruiters are required to be more selective in their choices, since poor recruiting decisions can result in long-standing harmful effects (Ahmad and Schroeder, 2002). Recruitment is defined as the set of activities and processes used to legally get hold of an adequate number of qualified individuals at the right place and time so that the people and the organization can select each other in their interests. This means that the recruitment process gives the organization a number of potentially qualified job candidates from which employers can make well judged selection to fill available jobs (Dessler, 2002). Recruitment might be carried out through internal or external sources. In instances when internal recruitment does not generate the number or quality of staff needed, the organization has to recruit from external sources (Community for human resource management, 2008). Internal recruitment is recruitment which takes place in the organization. It is the hunt for in-house personnel who have the skills and attitudes to accomplish the requirements needed and to facilitate the organization attain its goals. Internal vacancies can be promoted within the business through staff notice boards, intranets (website whose viewing is limited to the organizations members), in-house magazines, newsletters and staff meetings. In case of internal recruitment, employees are transferred from one department to another based on their competence and knowledge. The can also be promoted from one department to another with additional benefits and greater responsibility according to his or her competence and skill. This can be done through job postings which is advertising a vacant position to employees and mentioning its requirements. Upgrading or demotions are another example of internal recruitment. Retired and retrenched employees may also be recruited once again if there is a scarcity of competent personnel or the work load increases. Recruitment of such individuals saves time and costs of the organization as they are previously conscious of the organizational set up and the regulations. The dependents and relatives of deceased employees and disabled employees are also employed by numerous organizations so that the members of the family do not become reliant on others. Succession planning is another internal source of recruitment, which is the ongoing process of systematically indentifying, assessing and developing organizational leadership to enhance performance. Internal recruitment can prove quite advantageous for the organization. Since the individuals recruiting candidates are mainly is focused on already existing employees to fill up a vacant position, selection and socialization procedures are less time and money consuming and thus internal recruiting tends to be less expensive than external recruiting. Furthermore, the projection of possible promotions or transfers give an obvious indication to the existing work force that the organization presents scope for progression leading to increased sense of commitment to the organization and job security. Furthermore, it can also be source of keeping workers who may have been considering a leaving the organization. The familiarity of the employees is an added factor in internal recruitment and has benefits for both the organization and the employee; firstly, the worker is knows the organization’s policies and procedures. Similarly, the organization has the employee’s history which decreases the risk of selecting an inappropriate candidate (Lang, 2002). Along with a number of advantages, there are numerous drawbacks of internal recruitment as well. Firstly, there is a chance of inbreeding, that is, there is a reduced possibility of improvement and new perspectives. A deficiency of new employees from the outside leads to a lack of new ideas and approaches. Using existing employees for vacant positions can result in disagreement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The organization has to make sure and constantly check its balance of diverse labor. In order to expand the skills required to instruct the existing labor in new processes and technologies, the organization has to offer extra expensive training program. Occasionally it is hard to come across the precise candidate within and the organization may settle for an employee who is less competent or there can be possible dissatisfaction of the rejected employees. If the vacancies are as a result of swift growth of the organization there may be an inadequate supply of competent individuals beyond the entry level. This may cause employees to be promoted before they are prepared, or not being permitted to settle in a position long enough to become skilled at how to do the job well. External recruitment is recruitment in which job candidates from the external environment or individuals who are not current employees can be considered for vacancies through a number of avenues. External recruiting methods can be divided into two classes; informal and formal. Informal recruiting methods hit a smaller market than formal methods. These methods may comprise of rehiring previous employees, selecting from walk-in applicants and referrals. Informal recruiting methods are usually used for hiring secretarial and other base-level recruits Former students who took part in internship programmes may also be offered jobs. Formal methods of external recruiting involve looking for the labor market extensively for candidates with no prior association to the organization. Most businesses employ external recruitment quite often, mainly those that are developing strongly, or that function in industries with high employee turnover. These techniques usually contain advertisement, employment agencies and college recruitment. Now job/career fairs and e-recruiting are also an important source of external recruitment (Lingham, 2008). There are numerous techniques through which external candidates can be recruited. Job advertisements are the most frequently used type of external recruitment. These include; local and national newspapers, magazines, notice boards, recruitment fairs, radio and television. The advertisements include important information relating to the job. Job centers are another source of external recruitment which are paid by the government and are responsible for serving the unemployed locate jobs or get guidance. They also offer service for organizations requiring advertising a job opening. Recruitment agencies also make available employers with information of appropriate applicants for a vacancy and can be referred as head-hunters. They work for free and frequently focus in a particular employment field. Employee referrals or personal recommendation are also important tools of recruitment and are often referred as word of mouth. College recruitment is the presence of an organization’s representatives in colleges to pre-screen applicants and produces a candidate pool from that college’s graduating class. This is a chance for recruiters to choose the possible work force with the personal, technical and professional capabilities. Labor contractors are also included in external recruiting because manual workers can be hired through contractors who keep close contacts with the sources of such workers. Applicant initiated job recruitments include walk-ins and unsolicited applicants who visit the office of recognized organizations on their own. Another concept is of job fairs in which brings those looking for jobs into those organizations that are looking for suitable candidates. Job fairs are open forums at which employers can display the finest their organization have to propose so that individual looking for the job can make knowledgeable choices. Lastly, in e-Recruitment/recruiting from the internet jobs can be put up on Internet sites, they can stay there for some time and are available to those interested twenty-four hours a day. The jobs are advertised worldwide web. The job seekers e-mail their information. On the other hand job seekers put their CV’s in worldwide web, which can be taken by potential employees according to their needs. Recruiting firms and employment agencies are becoming popular, particularly in the hunt for management level/executive talent. Recruiting through this means is costly. Executive search firms are inclined to match candidates to jobs quicker that most organizations mainly because the recruiting firms/employment agencies have superior databases of, and wider access to, persons and have a greater awareness of the positions of competencies wanted by the client agencies. It is regularly said that the best jobs are not advertised; their availability is communicated by word of mouth. Networking, thus, persists to be a practical method for recruiting, particularly at the senior management level in certain industries. Using the Internet is quicker and cheaper than many conventional methods of recruiting. The Internet quickens the recruiting process by faster posting of jobs, faster applicant response and faster processing of résumés Companies that are possibly to publicize on-line generally have a website that permits latent candidates to discover the organization before deciding to apply, thus lowering the occurrence time-wasting by giving in of unsuitable applications. Job websites present indefinite space which can be utilized by the management, to promote the organization. This will let candidates to become more familiar with the organization, be acquainted with what skills the organization is looking for and get to be familiar with its culture. Most notably, the method will grant a proper course to securing speedy responses to job openings. On-line recruiting assists the decentralization of the recruiting function by making it possible for other groups in the organization to take the duty for part of the function. Internet recruiting has drawbacks such as that some applicants still give immense worth on human interactions in the recruiting process. Such applicants might pay no attention to jobs posted on-line. Also, companies are snowed under by the amount of résumés sent through the Internet. This can, thus, extend the short-listing process. If the screening process is not done well, the number of applications/résumés may well be more of an obstruction rather than facilitate selection. Also, the job seekers who insist confidentiality in the recruitment procedure may be unwilling to use the Internet as a job search method. College recruiting offers a chance to talk about a student’s existing strengths and prospective future value to an organization and cannot be imitated in any other setting (Broman, Cabander and Karlsson, 2008). Two main advantages of this strategy are the cost, which is higher than word-of-mouth recruiting but lower than advertising in the media or using an employment agency, and second, the convenience (since many candidates can be interviewed in a short time in the same location with space and administrative support provided by the college itself). Unfortunately, appropriate candidates are accessible only at specific times of the year, which may not always go well with the needs of the recruiting organization. Another major disadvantage of college recruiting is the lack of experience and the exaggerated expectations of fresh graduates and the price of hiring graduates for clerical positions that may not need a college degree. College recruitment is fairly expensive and time consuming for the recruiting company. The procedure entails screening the candidate, that is, deciding whether he/she is worthy of further consideration and promoting the company as a chosen place of employment. Posting job openings externally using media and employment agencies reaches a greater number of audiences and may possibly bring large amounts of probable candidates for the organization to decide. At the same time, this system is comparatively costly and long as the organization works through preliminary advertisements, short-listing, interviewing and the other procedures that go before selection. Still, there is no assurance that the consequences will be acceptable to the organization, as the cost of advertising often restricts the occurrence and period of the job posting, along with the amount of information made accessible, therefore making it hard for a possible candidate to exactly evaluate the value of the position being offered. Additionally, the organization may employ a candidate who fails to live up to the high capabilities shown through the selection process. There are numerous advantages of external recruitment. Firstly, by recruiting individuals from the external environment, there is a far greater chance that they would provide new and innovative ideas and a fresh perspective, thus resulting in the rapid growth of the organization and diversity. Also, there is need to train experienced personnel would reduce the cost of training. Recruitment of external candidates reduces susceptibility to politics, that is, external recruitment may be less upsetting to present organizational hierarchy. Furthermore, there is larger pool of candidates to choose from which would ultimately result in hiring the right man for the right job. External recruitment also has several disadvantages. Firstly, there is a long process of recruitment, selection and appointment involved in external recruitment. The techniques of advertisement and the agency fees may prove to be expensive, thus increasing the recruitment cost. The recruitment cost can also increase because greater socialization and orientation may be required for the new employees. It may prove difficult to assess the best candidate from a large pool of candidates. Also, many of the qualities of the new employees are not known until they start working. Due to external recruitment, there is a higher chance of worker turnover. There might be a chance of demoralization in the existing employees for alleged double standards and favor shown towards the new recruitment from outside. New entries through external recruitment can be offered at lower pay rates. External recruitment might result in decreased incentive value of promotions (William, 1996). REFERENCES Ahmad, S. and Schroeder, R. G. (2002). ‘The importance of recruitment and selection process for sustainability of total quality management’, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 19 (5), pp. 540-550. Available at: www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/0265671 0210427511 (Accessed 11 November 2009) Broman, C., Cabander, R. Karlsson, E. (2008). How graduating students perceive the staffing and recruitment industry : A study on corporate reputation. Available at: http://www.essays.se /essay/6fde1e2896/ (Accessed 11 November 2009) Community for human resource management (2008). What are the different sources of recruitment? Available at: http//chrmglobal.com. (Accessed 11 November 2009). Dessler, G. (2002). Human resource management, 11th edn. London: Pearson Education. Lang, S. (2002). Researchers find hiring internally has the edge over hiring externally. Available at: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/12.5.02/hiring_internally.html (Accessed 11 November 2009) Lingham, L. (2008). Hiring employees-internal and external recruitment, Available at: http://en.allexperts.q/Hiring-Employees-2132/2008/2/internal-external-recruitment.htm. (Accessed 11 November 2009). William, C. (1996). External recruitment versus internal promotion. Available at: http://ideas. repec.org/a/ucp/jlabec/v14y1996i4p555-70.html (Accessed 11 November 2009)   Read More