Factors affecting Recruitment & Selection

Recruitment and Selection is a significant purpose of Human Resource Management and it’s a combination of numerous factors. Active HR Professionals must understand these factors manipulating the recruitment and selection to take required actions for the improvement of the business.

It is considered one of the most important functions of the Human Resource Department of every organization is attracting potential employee(s) who have the required qualification, skills, knowledge, experience, and attitude to take up the job offer to fill a vacancy (Muscalu, 2015). In attracting applicants for a job, management should identify the sources of recruitment. The sources of recruitment an organization could consider are; internal sources and external sources. However, according to Muscalu (2015), it is appropriate to use both sources stated above to increase the company’s chances of attracting the most qualified person for the job.

 

Figure 1: Factors Affecting Recruitment and Selection Process of the Organization

(Source: Islam, Habib & Pathan, 2010)

According to the diagram above the internal factors are mainly related to recruitment policy, human resource planning, size of the firm, cost of recruitment, and growth and expansion. The external factors are supply and demand, labor market, image or goodwill, political/social/legal environment, unemployment rate, and competitors.

Brooks, et.al., (2009) identified that people differentiate between options more when they consider them simultaneously than when they view them separately. Several factors induce differentiation in this regard which is broadly related to internal and external factors. The recruitment and selection process is also affected by the beliefs of HR professionals.

Recruitment policy is a comprehensively written procedure of the organization which ensures conformity to certain standards and uniformity in the process of recruitment (Otiato, 2019). Through this policy, it serves the purpose of ensuring the organization employs the right people, with the right skills and qualifications at the right time. It simply outlines the procedure to be followed from the time a vacancy occurs to the time the vacancy is filled with a competent person (Zinyemba, 2014). Human resource planning is considered a process of linking organization objectives to human resource functions and policies (Nkomo, 1987). The aim of human resource planning is two-fold as stated by Lynch (1982): one is to ensure that there is maximum utilization of the current staff in the organization and the second is to identify future staffing needs of the organization regarding the number and the skills required (Rahman & Eldridge, 1998). The size of the organization is one of the most important factors affecting the recruitment process. To develop the business entity, recruitment planning is mandatory for hiring more resources, which will be crucial in the management of future operations (Kapur, 2018). Cost is another important factor that influences the recruitment and selection process. As such, organizations try to employ the source of recruitment that incurs a lower cost of recruitment to the organization (Islam, Habib & Pathan, 2010) For expanding decisions of the organization, more people will be required to recruit in the future.

When there is high competition in the industry the supply of labor diminishes since demand is high. For example, Kenyan higher education institutions have become less attractive to emerging scholars and many of them sent overseas for further education have failed to return (Odhiambo, 2013). The recruitment and selection process of the organization is also influenced by the community in which it is situated. Surplus manpower in the labor market assembles when there is an advertisement given by a company. Company image and goodwill are other factors that affect the recruitment and selection process of the company. Government rules which prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment have a direct impact on the recruitment and selection process of the organization. Also, the militancy of trade unions plays important role in the recruitment and selection process. If the company is unable to create new jobs, there is often an oversupply of qualified labor which in turn leads to unemployment. The recruitment policies of the competitors also affect the recruitment and selection process of the company in advance.

Proactive HR Professionals should understand these factors influencing recruitment and take necessary actions where necessary for the betterment of the organization.

  

References

Brooks, E. M., Guidroz, M. A., & Chakrabarti, M., (2009), Distinction Bias in Applicant Reactions to Using Diversity Information in Selection, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Vol. 17 (4): 377-390.

Islam, N., Habib, M. W., & Pathan, R. K., (2010), Factors Affecting the Recruitment and Selection Process of Private. The Journal of Global Commerce, Volume 2.

Muscalu, E. (2015). Sources of human resources recruitment organization. Management and Economics, 3(79), 352-359.Robert, G. (2005). Recruitment and selection. London: Institute of Personnel Development Publishers.

Nkomo, S. M. (1987). Human Resource Planning and Organization Performance: An Exploratory Analysis. Strategic Management Journal, vol. 8(4), 387–392.

Odhiambo, G. O. (2013). Academic brain drain: Impact and implications for public higher education quality in Kenya. Research in Comparative and International Education, vol. 8(4), 510–523.

Otiato, E. A., (2019), Factors Influencing Recruitment and Selection of Faculty in Private Universities in Kenya: A Case Study of United States International University – Africa.

Rahman, A. & Eldridge, D. (1998b). Re-conceptualizing human resource planning in response to institutional change. International Journal of Manpower, vol. 19(5), 343–357.

Zinyemba, A. Z. (2014). The Challenges of Recruitment and Selection of Employees in Zimbabwean Companies. International Journal of Science and Research, vol. 3(1), 29–33