Recent Trends in Recruitment

Recruitment is a function that requires business perspective, expertise, ability to find and match the best potential candidate for the organization, diplomacy, marketing skills (as to sell the position to the candidate) and wisdom to align the recruitment processes for the benefit of the organization.

Recruitment is the process of finding the apt candidates and inducing them to apply for the job in an organisation. The recruitment should be a sound one. If it is not so, the morale of the staff will be very low and the image of the company will be tarnished.

The success of any recruitment depends upon the procedure followed by the company while recruiting the members. Jobs with low salary, uninteresting jobs or difficult jobs cannot be filled up by the company very easily. Every company has to recruit its staff members but the quantum of recruitment may vary from one company to another company. The variation may be due to the size of the company, recruitment policy of the company, nature of the job and the like.

The following trends are being seen in recruitment:- 1. HR Poaching/Raiding 2. Outsourcing 3. Head-Hunters 4. In-House Recruitment 5. Recruitment Management System 6. E-Recruitment 7. Internships 8. Walk in Interview 9. Recruitment Industry.

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Recent Trends in Recruitment – Poaching/Raiding, Outsourcing, E-Recruitment, Internships and Walk in Interview

Recent Trends in Recruitment – Top 5 Trends: HR Poaching/Raiding, Recruitment Industry, Head-Hunters, In-House Recruitment and Recruitment Management System

Recruitment is the process of finding the apt candidates and inducing them to apply for the job in an organisation. The recruitment should be a sound one. If it is not so, the morale of the staff will be very low and the image of the company will be tarnished.

The success of any recruitment depends upon the procedure followed by the company while recruiting the members. Jobs with low salary, uninteresting jobs or difficult jobs cannot be filled up by the company very easily. Every company has to recruit its staff members but the quantum of recruitment may vary from one company to another company. The variation may be due to the size of the company, recruitment policy of the company, nature of the job and the like.

The following trends are being seen in recruitment:

Recent Trend # 1. HR Poaching/Raiding:

“Buying talent” (rather than developing it) is the latest mantra being followed by the organizations today. Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company in the same or different industry; the organization might be a competitor in the industry.

A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe brunt of poaching today. It has become a challenge for human resource managers to face and tackle poaching, as it weakens the competitive strength of the firm.

Recent Trend # 2. The Recruitment Industry:

The recruitment industry has four main types of agencies. Their recruiters aim to channel candidates into the hiring organization’s application process. As a general rule, the agencies are paid by the companies, not the candidates.

a. Traditional Recruitment Agency:

Also known as employment agencies, recruitment agencies have historically had a physical location. A candidate visits a local branch for a short interview and an assessment before being taken onto the agency’s books. Recruitment Consultants then endeavour to match their pool of candidates to their clients’ open positions. Suitable candidates are with potential employers.

Remuneration for the agency’s services usually takes one of two forms:

i. A contingency fee paid by the company when a recommended candidate accepts a job with the client company (typically 20%-30% of the candidate’s starting salary), which usually has some form of guarantee, should the candidate fail to perform and is terminated within a set period of time.

ii. An advance payment that serves as a retainer, also paid by the company.

iii. In some states it may still be legal for an employment agency to charge the candidate instead of the company, but in most states that practice is now illegal, due to past unfair and deceptive practices.

b. Outsourcing:

In India, the HR processes are being outsourced from more than a decade now. A company may draw required personnel from outsourcing firms. The outsourcing firms help the organization by the initial screening of the candidates according to the needs of the organization and creating a suitable pool of talent for the final selection by the organization.

Outsourcing firms develop their human resource pool by employing people for them and make available personnel to various companies as per their needs. In turn, the outsourcing firms or the intermediaries charge the organizations for their services.

Advantages of outsourcing are:

i. Company need not plan for human resources much in advance.

ii. Value creation, operational flexibility and competitive advantage.

iii. Turning the management’s focus to strategic level processes of HRM.

iv. Company is free from salary negotiations, weeding the unsuitable resumes/candidates.

v. Company can save a lot of its resources and time.

c. Online Recruitment Websites:

Such sites have two main features- job boards and a resume/Curriculum Vitae (CV) database. Job boards allow member companies to post job vacancies. Alternatively, candidates can upload a resume to be included in searches by member companies. Fees are charged for job postings and access to search resumes.

d. Employee Leasing:

Employee leasing now a days have become one of the most convenient ways of hiring human resources in an organization. Outsourcing organizations, consultants etc. provide their client organizations the most dependable, sincere and creative employees. These employees work remotely from the consultant’s offices.

In this type of staffing or hiring, from a technical and productive standpoint, there is no difference between an engineer sitting 6000 miles away and the one sitting in the next cubicle in the office on a local area network. Employee leasing is similar to the process of hiring temporary workers, but the key difference is permanency.

A company wishing to pursue employee leasing will first contact a professional employment organization (PEO) to discuss its particular employment needs. The PEO or other employment leasing company might set up an interview process for recruiting new staff, or might take responsibility for existing workers. The company can still participate in the hiring process, but any hired personnel will officially work for the employee leasing company.

Employers often pursue employee leasing options in order to eliminate the need for accountants and human resource managers. The employee leasing agency charges a fee in addition to the employees’ wages, much like temporary employment agencies. This fee is often less than the cost of hiring human resource experts and payroll accountants.

Because workers are not considered employees of the company in a legal sense, personal injuries and workers’ compensation claims become the responsibility of the employee leasing agency.

Employee leasing is not a perfect solution for some companies, however, since workers are not completely under the control of management, communications may become strained. Conflicts may have to be arbitrated by representatives of the employee leasing agency. Termination of non-productive workers may not be as simple as handing out pink slips. Certain union contracts actually prohibit the use of employee leasing agencies or PEOs in order to prevent companies from outsourcing their human resource departments.

Applicability of Employee Leasing:

The concept of employee leasing can be highly profitable for the company and the existing staff as:

i. Better product and great customer service are the two most important factors for growth and prosperity of every company. Remote employees can help you develop efficient, bug less products and free In-Office or (say) In-House employees’ time to communicate with customers to understand and design their requirements efficiently.

ii. Give more time and opportunities to In-Office employees for innovation.

iii. Client Company can have more brains to throw at a job to get it done better and faster.

iv. Stress-free environment can also play a big role when it comes in meeting tight deadlines. A fresh brain can work ideally smarter than a talented one. Infact if an offshore employee is also surrounded by an equally talented Project manager, Results are golden.

Recent Trend # 3. Head-Hunters:

Head-hunters are third-party recruiters often retained when normal recruitment efforts have failed. Headhunters are generally more aggressive than in-house recruiters. They may use advanced sales techniques, such as initially posing as clients to gather employee contacts, as well as visiting candidate offices.

They may also purchase expensive lists of names and job titles, but more often will generate their own lists. They may prepare a candidate for the interview, help negotiate the salary, and conduct closure to the search. They are frequently members in good standing of industry trade groups and associations. Headhunters will often attend trade shows and other meetings nationally or even internationally that may be attended by potential candidates and hiring managers.

Recent Trend # 4. In-House Recruitment:

Larger employers tend to undertake their own in-house recruitment, using their Human Resources department. In addition to coordinating with the agencies mentioned above, in-house recruiters may advertise job vacancies on their own websites, coordinate employee referral schemes, and/or focus on campus graduate recruitment. Alternatively a large employer may choose to outsource all or some of their recruitment process (Recruitment process outsourcing).

Recent Trend # 5. Recruitment Management System:

Recruitment management system is the comprehensive tool to manage the entire recruitment processes of an organization. It is one of the technological tools facilitated by the information management systems to the HR of organizations. Just like performance management, payroll and other systems, Recruitment management system helps to contour the recruitment processes and effectively managing the ROI on recruitment.

The features, functions and major benefits of the recruitment management system are explained below:

1. Structure and systematically organize the entire recruitment processes.

2. Recruitment management system facilitates faster, unbiased, accurate and reliable processing of applications from various applications.

3. Helps to reduce the time-per-hire and cost-per-hire.

4. Recruitment management system helps to incorporate and integrate the various links like the application system on the official website of the company, the unsolicited applications, outsourcing recruitment, the final decision-making to the main recruitment process.

5. Recruitment management system maintains an automated active database of the applicants facilitating the talent management and increasing the efficiency of the recruitment processes.

6. Recruitment management system provides and a flexible, automated and interactive interface between the online application system, the recruitment department of the company and the job seeker.

7. Offers tolls and support to enhance productivity, solutions and optimizing the recruitment processes to ensure improved ROI.

8. Recruitment management system helps to communicate and create healthy relationships with the candidates through the entire recruitment process.

The Recruitment Management System (RMS) is an innovative information system tool which helps to sane the time and costs of the recruiters and improving the recruitment processes.

Profile Analysis – Evaluating Employees against Job Requirements:

Few aspects of management command more attention and are fraught with more difficulties than that of managing human resources. First line supervisors feel the pressure daily to find the right persons for each position and, when found, to keep the individual challenged against the requirements of the position.

Unfortunately, there are no scientific formulas for defining position requirements and evaluating job applicants. The position/person matching process seems more art than science. While it is performed daily by many, few feel comfortable at handling the required complexities. One reason is that they have no analytical framework for addressing this process of balancing with people.

Whether:

i. Establishing a new position,

ii. Seeking qualified applicants to hire,

iii. Evaluating performance of existing personnel,

iv. Or attempting to develop personnel career advancement.

To evaluate the performance of an existing employee, a supervisor compares the expectations for the position with the employee’s actual performance. The requirements of the position must be determined, the performance or capabilities of individuals must be evaluated against these requirements.

This process is carried out continually, often without the aid of any concrete discipline. Each case seems unique. The need is for an ordered methodology for doing this that accommodates the different environments and the non-quantifiable elements that must be taken into account.

Profile analysis is the tool of choice in these circumstances, namely-

Job Position Profiling:

It consists of the following elements, namely:

1. Oral and written communication skills,

2. Knowledge of the industry,

3. Knowledge of accounting systems,

4. Knowledge of and experience using Cobol programming language,

5. Knowledge of the computers operating system, and

6. Skills in database management.

Personnel Profile:

Once the position requirements are established, attention can turn to evaluating the job applicant side of the equation. Input for this part of the evaluation will come from a variety of sources, including-

a. A job application

b. Resume/CV,

c. A job interview,

d. Discussion with former employers,

e. Actual on the job observations and

f. Discussion with peers.

Using the information obtained, a personnel evaluation of each job candidate can be performed in which the individual qualifications are matched with the previously developed knowledge/skill factors required, factor by factor. Using a spider chart, the individual’s level can then be annotated for each factor.

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Recent Trends in Recruitment

Recruitment is a function that requires business perspective, expertise, ability to find and match the best potential candidate for the organization, diplomacy, marketing skills (as to sell the position to the candidate) and wisdom to align the recruitment processes for the benefit of the organization.

The HR professionals- handling the recruitment function of the organization are constantly facing new challenges. The biggest challenge for such professionals is to source or recruit the best people or potential candidate for the organization.

1. Outsourcing:

Recruitment is a complex job. It demands considerable amount of experience, expertise and the ability to understand market dynamics and react quickly. Also in many cases, reputed companies do not want to get their names publicised in a big way and unnecessarily become targets of critical attention.

They may like to hire the required numbers in a quiet manner. In such a scenario, the only option left to the firm is to hand over the job to an outside agency specializing in the hiring and related processes. The recruiting company, thus, may draw everything through what is popularly known as Outsourcing.

“Human Resource Outsourcing” refers to the process in which an organisation uses the expert services of a third party (generally professional consultants) to take care of its HR functions while HR management can focus on the strategic dimension of their function. The functions that are typically outsourced are the functions that need expertise, relevant experience, knowledge and best methods and practices.

The Outsourcing firms help the firm by the initial screening of the applicants according to the requirements of the firm — by charging a fee. This way the firm’s name is protected from public gaze and it can get the required numbers without stepping into the job market directly.

For the outsourcing firm, this is a routine job, since they have experts who carry out this exercise almost on a daily basis. They bring considerable expertise to the table and can generate quite a large talent pool for the company to pick and choose. There is, thus, considerable value creation.

There is also the advantage of operational flexibility, as the recruiting firm can focus its energies on other strategic aspects of human resource management. The recruiting firm need not even make its name public till the salary negotiations are over or till the unsuitable ones are eliminated.

2. Poaching/Raiding:

Poaching has become a common practice nowadays especially in industries where there is cutthroat competition and there is chronic shortage of skilled, experienced and trained hands. For example, if Reliance Retail wants to hire competent professionals in the retail industry, it would be easy to hire people from a competing firm — say Big Bazaar, Pantaloons Retail, Westside or Spencer’s — through attractive salaries and benefit packages.

The poaching firm does not want to waste time in hiring inexperienced hands, put them on the job and train them for months together. This may prove to be a back-breaking exercise. And there is no guarantee that after receiving training the new recruits will stay on.

So, the easiest way to get the right kind of people doing a job that demands considerable experience and expertise is to raid over a competing firm, this, however, does not work in the long run. The firm that is being raided like this will hit back, and may raise the salary bar and force other players to follow suit.

The eventual talent war is going to ruin the industry forever. It is an unethical practice, and, not welcomed by many even in the global arena. It is not easy to put an end to the practice, unless all competing firms agree not to resort to ‘below the belt’ kind of tactics while hiring experienced people.

Of course, companies have to realise the dangers inherently present in such unhealthy practices and so quietly enter into some kind of poaching agreements behind the curtain — without the knowledge of the potential job-seekers.

Buying talent rather than developing it — does not work in the long run. So if the organisation wants to play the game fairly and wants to be a long distance runner, it should look for other healthy routes to hire people from the open market.

3. E-Recruitment:

Many large-scale organisations use Internet as a valuable source of hiring talent. E-recruitment is nothing but the brilliant use of technology to aid the recruitment process. The recruiter here would advertise job vacancies through the World Wide Web. The potential job-seekers send their Curriculum Vitae (CV) through e-mail using the Internet.

The recruiter can put as many screening filters as possible to put a check over applications from unsuitable candidates. Of course, this saves considerable time also. Since there are no intermediaries, there is considerable saving of money — as the exercise could alert quite a large number of potential job-seekers and entice them to apply for the vacant position.

The recruiter can carefully scan the details sent in by only qualified applicants more closely and send appropriate signals to the right kind of people — instead of getting bulldozed by a large number of applications from both suitable as well as unsuitable job-seekers.

In short, the recruitment process can be carried out in an effective (in the sense that it meets all your recruiting goals) and cost-efficient manner. E-recruitment can be undertaken either through specialised job portals or through the company’s own website. Resume scanners could be put in place to weed out the unwanted stuff.

The specialised job portals operate on a ’24×7′ basis. Armed with a large database of the resumes, the potential employers can tap this source whenever the requirement comes. It is like just in time hiring and can be carried out in an economical manner, since the recruiting firm need not advertise for the post in a big way.

Hiring through the company’s own website can also bring in the required numbers, if the website is easy to handle and the company in question is a reputed one — tracked by most job-seekers in the employment market.

The company should, of course, put the applicant tracking systems in place and invest considerable money in making the website easy to run through for job-seekers. E-recruitment is the emerging and evolving face of recruitment activity all over the globe now and India is no exception to this.

e-Recruitment:

The buzzword and the latest trends in recruitment is the “e-Recruitment”. Also known as “Online recruitment”, it is the use of technology or the web based tools to assist the recruitment process. The tool can be either a job website like naukri(dot)com, the organization’s corporate website or its own intranet.

Many big and small organizations are using Internet as a source of recruitment. They advertise job vacancies through worldwide web. The job seekers send their applications or curriculum vitae (CV) through an e-mail using the Internet. Alternatively job seekers place their CV’s in worldwide web, which can be drawn by prospective employees depending upon their requirements.

Types of e-Recruitment:

The various kinds of e-recruitment that an organization can use is:

1. Job Portals:

Job portals – i.e. posting the position with the job description and the job specification on the job portal and also searching for the suitable resumes posted on the site corresponding to the opening in the organization. Job sites provide a 24 × 7 access to the database of the resumes to the employees facilitating the just-in-time hiring by the organizations. Also, the jobs can be posted on the site almost immediately and is also cheaper than advertising in the employment newspapers.

Sometimes companies can get valuable references through the “passers-by” applicants. Online recruitment helps the organizations to automate the recruitment process, save their time and costs on recruitments.

2. Creating a Complete Online Recruitment/Application Section in the Company’s Own Website:

Companies have added an application system to its website, where the ‘passive’ job seekers can submit their resumes into the database of the organization for consideration in future, as and when the roles become available.

3. Resume Scanners:

Resume scanner is one major benefit provided by the job portals to the organizations. It enables the employees to screen and filter the resumes through pre-defined criteria’s and requirements (skills, qualifications, experience, payroll etc.) of the job.

Online recruitment techniques involve features such as:

a. Giving a detailed job description and job specifications in the job postings to attract candidates with the right skill sets and qualifications at the first stage.

b. E-recruitment should be incorporated into the overall recruitment strategy of the organization.

c. A well-defined and structured applicant tracking system should be integrated and the system should have a back-end support.

d. Along with the back-office support a comprehensive website to receive and process job applications (through direct or online advertising) should be developed.

Advantage and Disadvantage of e-Recruitment:

There are many benefits – both to the employers and the job seekers but the e-recruitment is not free from a few shortcomings.

Some of the advantages and the disadvantages of e-recruitment are as follows:

Advantages of e-Recruitment:

1. Lower costs to the organization. Also, posting jobs online is cheaper than advertising in the newspapers.

2. No intermediaries.

3. Reduction in the time for recruitment (over 65 per cent of the hiring time).

4. Facilitates the recruitment of right type of people with the required skills.

5. Improved efficiency of recruitment process.

6. Gives a 24 x 7 access to an online collection of resumes.

7. Online recruitment helps the organizations to weed out the unqualified candidates in an automated way.

8. Recruitment websites also provide valuable data and information regarding the compensation offered by the competitors etc. which helps the HR managers to take various HR decisions like promotions, salary trends in industry etc.

Disadvantages of e-Recruitment:

Apart from the various benefits, e-recruitment has its own share of shortcomings and disadvantages.

Some of them are:

1. Screening and checking the skill mapping and authenticity of millions of resumes is a problem and time consuming exercise for organizations.

2. There is low internet penetration and no access and lack of awareness of internet in many locations across India.

3. Organizations cannot be dependent solely and totally on the online recruitment methods.

4. In India, the employers and the employees still prefer a face-to-face interaction rather than sending e-mails.

Industry Opinion:

“HCL is pioneer in the usage Web 2.0 in its recruitment process and 5-7% of its total recruiting is done through this”. Mr. Ravi Shankar, Global Head, Talent Management Group, HCL Technologies.

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Recent Trends in Recruitment – Outsourcing, Poaching or Raiding, E-Recruitment, Internships and Walk in Interview

1. Outsourcing:

Under this arrangement, a company may draw the required personnel from the outsourcing firms or agencies on temporary basis rather than offering them employment. This is also called leasing of human resources. The outsourcing firms develop their human resource pools by employing people for them and make available the personnel to various companies (called clients) as per their needs.

The outsourcing firms get payment for their services to their clients and give salary directly to the personnel. The personnel deputed by the outsourcing agencies with the clients are not the employees of the clients. They continue to be on the payroll of their employers, i.e., the outsourcing agencies.

Several outsourcing companies or agencies have come up which supply (or lease) human resources of various categories to their clients. A company in need of personnel of certain categories can approach an outsourcing agency and avail the services of its human resources on lease basis against payment of agreed amount.

The human resources so deputed will report back to the outsourcing agency after their assignment is over. This system facilitates the organisation to hire security personnel from a security agency, computer professionals from a computer firm, or accountants from an accountancy firm.

The advantages of getting human resources through the outsourcing agencies are as follows:

(i) The companies need not plan for human resources much in advance. They can get human resources on lease basis from an outsourcing agency.

(ii) The companies are free from industrial relations problems as human resources taken on lease are not their employees.

(iii) The companies can dispense with this category of employees immediately after the project or assignment is completed.

2. Poaching or Raiding:

Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company which might be a rival in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions. For instance, several executives of HMT left to join Titan Watches and several pilots of Indian Airlines left to join private air taxi operators.

There are several other examples where the firms have raided the rival firms to procure key personnel to enhance their competitive advantage.

Whatever may be the means used to raid rival firms for potential candidates, it is often seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. In fact, raiding has become a challenge for the human resource managers of modern organisations because poaching of a key executive by a rival firm will weaken the competitive strength of the affected firm.

3. E-Recruitment:

Many big organisations use internet as a source of recruitment. They advertise the job vacancies through the worldwide web (www). The job seekers send their applications or Curriculum Vitae, i.e., CV, through e-mail using the internet. Alternatively, job seekers place their CVs in the world wide web/internet, which can be drawn by the prospective employers depending upon their requirements.

The advantages of e-recruitment are as follows:

(i) Low cost of recruitment per candidate.

(ii) Reduction in time for recruitment.

(iii) Recruitment of right types of people.

(iv) Efficiency in the process of recruitment.

4. Internships:

Internships offered by many industrial enterprises constitute an effective recruiting technique. Internship usually involves employment during the summer before graduation from college, specially in some technical courses. This is also known as ‘Summer Placement’ which requires a prior selection process by the employer. The talented interns may be offered regular jobs on completion of their internship training.

5. Walk in Interview:

Under this method, the employer can insert a ‘Walk-in’ or ‘Talk-in’ advertisement in a daily newspaper or in the cyberspace (i.e., online). Those who walk in (i.e., come personally to the human resource department) or talk in (i.e., contact the human resource department over phone) or write in (i.e., send application through fax or e-mail) are asked to give necessary details to the recruiter.

However, during the ‘walk-in’ interview, the candidate may be asked to submit a formal application for the vacant post in the firm. After the interview, the candidate} may be informed about the selection or rejection decision of the employer.

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Recent Trends in Recruitment

The following trends are being seen in recruitment-

Recent Trend # i. Outsourcing:

In India, the HR processes are being outsourced from more than a decade now. A company may draw required personnel from outsourcing firms. The outsourcing firms help the organisation by the initial screening of the candidates according to the needs of the organisation and creating a suitable pool of talent for the final selection by the organisation.

Outsourcing firms develop their human resource pool by employing people for them and make available personnel to various companies as per their needs. In turn, the outsourcing firms or the intermediaries charge the organisations for their services.

Advantages of outsourcing are:

a. Company need not plan for human resources much in advance.

b. Value creation, operational flexibility and competitive advantage.

c. Turning the management’s focus to strategic level processes of HRM.

d. Company is free from salary negotiations, weeding the unsuitable resumes candidates.

e. Company can save a lot of its resources and time.

Recent Trend # ii. Poaching/Raiding:

“Buying talent” (rather than developing it) is the latest mantra being followed by the organisations today. Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company in the same or different industry; the organisation might be a competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the current employer of the candidate.

But it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe problem of poaching today. It has become a challenge for human resource managers to face and tackle poaching, as it weakens the competitive strength of the firm.

Recent Trend # iii. E-Recruitment:

Many big organizations use Internet as a source of recruitment. E-recruitment is the use of technology to assist the recruitment process. They advertise job vacancies through worldwide web. The job seekers send their applications or curriculum vitae, i.e., CV through e-mail using the Internet. Alternatively job seekers place their CV’s in worldwide web, which can be drawn by prospective employees depending upon their requirements.

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