Recruitment and selection

What is the value of effective recruitment and selection in a company? Why do large organisations sometimes outsource the process? We will be discussing all of the above in this article. But, let’s start from the beginning. What are recruitment and selection? What is their role in a business?

We already discussed the origins of recruitment in our article Recruitment History but let’s focus more on present times. So, what is recruitment in present times? In short, it’s finding the people for either temporary or permanents jobs. Longer version is that it’s the process of attracting, shortlisting, selecting and appointing suitable candidates. It’s also a form of Business process outsourcing where someone else (recruitment agency or a headhunter) takes over the process. Finally, selection is the process of filtering among all the candidates you recruited. So, where does the value in it lie?

Value of recruitment and selection

Whether the employers themselves carry out the recruitment process or they outsource it the final outcome is the same. Above all, you want the person you employed to have the specific skills you require. As well as a right mentality. Anyone who works in HR knows how many problems can come up when you make a wrong choice. You can teach somebody new skills. Sometimes that’s easy, sometimes it’s not. However, it’s far more difficult to change someones attitude.

Above, we touched on the aspect of fitting in. We hope it gave you a notion of why good recruitment and selection are important. Truly, good practices in the two help avoid a plethora of problems. When done internally, it can be a great way of stimulating your employees. Moreover, an upside to internal recruitment is that you already know the character of an employee you’re promoting. And, you can better estimate how that person will perform in their new role. However, sometimes you want to bring in fresh blood. Or maybe your recruitment needs are greater than you can cater to. This is especially true when you’re working on attracting a volume of entry level employees.

Furthermore, employing good recruitment and selection practices contributes to the success of the company. Every organisation is a living organism in it’s core. Made up of all the people who work in it. As well as their values, ideas and ethics. If your employees are satisfied they will be more productive. In turn, your organisation will be as well. For some roles, it’s necessary to employ additional selection practices. For example, chefs often have to attend a trial in the kitchen since it’s nearly impossible to determine their skill level on an interview alone.

Summary

Numbers don’t lie. Recruitment is always expensive so employing proper tactics minimises the margin of error. To sum up, if you’re recruiting you’re investing time and money. Of course, you don’t want someone who will slack.  Or someone who will leave after two months. Most importantly, you want someone whose arrival will help the company grow. As well as someone who will fit in culturally.