INTRODUCTION

Recruitment forms the first stage in the process, which continues

with selection and ceases with the placement of the candidate. It is

the next step in the procurement function, the first being the

manpower planning. Recruitment makes it possible to acquire the

number and types of people necessary to ensure the continued

operation of the organization. Recruiting is the discovering of

potential applicants for actual or anticipated organization vacancies.

In other words, it is a „linking activity‟ bringing together those with

jobs and those seeking jobs.

Companies are now looking out for new ways of giving themselves a

competitive advantage. New product, new image& new marketing

idea are some of the ways this can be achieved but enlightened and

successful companies look towards their people to provide the leading

edge.

Herein lies the important once of recruitment and staffing- getting

the right people for right job.

DEFINITION

According to Edwin B flippo “Recruitment is a process of searching

for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in

an organization. It is often termed positive in that it stimulates

people to apply for jobs to increase the selection ratio. Selection on

the other hand tends to be negative because it rejects a good number

of those, who apply, leaving only the best to be hired.”

SOURCE OF RECRUITMENT PROCESS

INTERNAL SOURCES

Internal Sources include personnel already on the pay-roll of

the organization. Whenever any vacancy arises, somebody

from within the organization may be looked into:

o Internal promotions

o Referrals

o Former employees

MERITS

o It improves the morale of employees, for they are assured

of the fact that they would be preferred over outsiders

when vacancies occur

o The employers are in a better position to evaluate those

presently employed than outside candidates. This is

because the company maintains a record of the progress,

experience and service of its employees

o It promotes loyalty among the employees, for it gives them

a sense of job security and opportunities for advancement

o As the person in the employment of the company are fully

aware of, and well acquainted with, its policies and know

its operating procedures, they require little training, and

the chances are that they would stay longer in the

employment of the organization than a new outsider

would

o It is less costly than going outside to recruit.

DEMERITS

o It often leads to inbreeding, and discourages new blood

from entering an organization

o There are possibilities that internal sources may “dry up”,

and it may be difficult to find the requisite personnel from

within an organization

o Since the learner does not know more than the lecture, no

innovation worth the name can made. Therefore, on jobs

which require marginal thinking, this practice is not

followed

o As promotion is based on seniority, the danger is that

really capable hands may not be chosen.

EXTERNAL SOURCES

External Sources of recruitment refer to Prospective candidates

outside the enterprise. They usually include new entrants to the

labor force.

The external sources are

o Advertisement in newspapers

o Campus and Online recruiting

o Casual job seekers

o Consultants and Job fair

MERITS

o .External sources provide the requisite type of personnel

for an organization, having skill, training and education

up to the required standard

o Since persons are recruited from a large market, the best

selection can be made without any distinctions of caste,

sex or color

o In the long run, this source proves economical because

potential employees do not need extra training for their

job

DEMERITS

However, this system suffers from what is called “brain drain,”

especially when experienced persons are raided or hunted by sister

concerns.

RECRUITMENT TECHNIQUES

RECRUITMENT TECHNIQUES

These techniques are classified as traditional techniques and

modern techniques.

v Traditional Techniques include:

Promotion

Transfers and

Advertising

Promotion: Most of the internal candidates would be stimulated to

take up higher responsibilities and express their willingness to be

engaged in the higher level jobs if the management gives them the

assurance that they will be promoted to the next higher level.

Transfers: Employees will be stimulated to work in the new

sections or places if the management wishes to transfer them to the

place of their choice.

Advertising: Advertising is a widely accepted technique of

recruitment, though it mostly provides one way communication. It

provides the candidates in different sources, the information about

the job and company and stimulates them to apply for job. It includes

advertising through different media like newspaper, magazines of all

kinds radio, television etc.

The technique of advertising should aim at 1) attracting attention

of the prospective candidates: 2) creating and maintaining interest

and 3) stimulating action by the candidates.

v Modern techniques:

Modern recruitment techniques to stimulate prospective employees

to apply for jobs in the company include:

1) Scouting

2) Salary and perks and

3) ESOPs

Scouting

It means sending the representations of the organizations to various

sources of recruitment with a view to persuading or stimulating the

candidates to apply for jobs. Salary and perks:

Companies stimulate the prospective candidates by offering

higher-level salary, more perks, quick promotions etc.

ESOPs:

Companies recently started stimulating employees by offering

stock ownership to the employees through their employees stock

ownership programmes

PROCESS OF RECRUITMENT

STEPS IN RECRUITMENT PROCESS

The process can be separated into three components:

The process starts with job planning, which among other things

involves analysis of the present and future needs for personnel

with different kinds of competence and for different tasks. This

first component of the process may result in a decision to

prepare for new jobs and announce job opportunities.

In the second step of the search process after a vacancy has

been defined on the basis of job planning, the employer has to

make his choice between alternate ways to spread and

formulate information about the vacant position. He can, for

example choose between different ways to formulate the

information about what experience and personal abilities of the

potential employee, etc.,

The third and final search decision confronting the employer is

to determine which one of the applicants to hire for the job

opening.

Basically, employers‟ decisions regarding the use of different search

channels and judgments regarding the suitability of job applicant

relate to the problems of asymmetric information; job applicants have

more knowledge of their capabilities than the prospective employers

do. The interaction of productivity difference among job applicants

and employers‟ uncertainty as regards the productive capabilities of

individuals may explain decisions taken by the employers both in

steps two and three of the recruitment process. Hiring is a decision

under uncertainty in the sense that the productivity of job applicants

in not directly observable. Therefore the employers are interested in

obtaining information that can serve as good statistic for applicant‟s

job capabilities.

The probability that a job seeker and employer shall find each other

and that an agreement about employment shall be reached, depends

on the behavior of both agent and on their characteristics. In the

traditional search theory regarding value of his/her lifetime income,

the reservation wage is important for the probability that a person

shall get a job within a given period of time and thereby for the

expected length of the unemployment spell.

In a corresponding way, the concept of reservation productivity can

be used for employers‟ recruitment of personnel. The assumption

regarding employers is that they try to maximize their profit by

employing persons with a value of their expected marginal product

that is higher than or equal to their expected total wage or cost.

Everything else being equal higher requirements put on the process

to be employed means lower probability to find competent job seekers

and longer expected vacancy durations. Efforts to maximize income

and profit also influence their choice of search channels.

A job seeker can be assumed to have higher probability to find a job

soon, when actively using several different search channels and an

employer can be assumed to rise that planning in general is

significant. The efficient utilization of organizational resources-

human, capital and technological does not just happen without the

continual estimation of future requirements and the development of

systematic strategies designed toward goal accomplishments.

The HR planning is the preliminary step of recruitment process. It is

the process by which an organization should move from its current

manpower position to its desired manpower position. It may be

viewed as for seeing the human resource requirements of as

organization an its feature supply making necessary adjustments

between the two organizational plans and also foreseeing the

possibility of developing the supply of human resources in order to

match it with the requirements by introducing necessary changes in

the functions of HR.

FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT

All organizations, large are small, have to engage in recruitment.

Some of them delegate the job to HR Managers, while others involve

the HR Managers directly on the job. The element conditions in the

community where the organization is located may be a factor for

attracting potential job applicants. Here, certain geographic factors

and location advantages play a important role.

The effect of past recruiting efforts, which shows the organizations

ability to locate and keep good people, is another criterion. For

example, if an organization follows the promotional policy of

recruiting from within, the employees will be motivated to continue

in such an organization. Also, the compensation and benefits package

offered by an organization influence and attract employees.

PERFORMANCE OF RECRUITMENT

Recruitment has always been a never-ending process in the

organization scenario. Significant transitions have been brought in

the long run of recruitment but the major concentration has always

been engaging persons in employment and the initial setup for this.

Recruitment is followed in the all-different sector, be it

manufacturing concern or a service sector. Recruitment is not just

confined to its sense it covers the aspects from selection to training.

Despite the usage of various terminologies describing each step of the

recruitment process, it is a chain link where the start is not distinct.

Recruitment involves seeking and attracting a pool of people from

which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be chosen.

Recruitment system can be subdivided into 4 major sub systems.

Finding out and developing sources

Developing techniques to attract candidates

Employing the techniques

Stimulating the candidates and making for apply for jobs.

PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESS

The first requirement is to have a continually expanding list of

prospects, persons who can be approached for insurance. These are

names of people within reach, obtained from acquaintances,

newspapers reports, directories, contracts at parties, meetings,

seminars, etc.

Those in the qualified prospect list have to be met. A sale results

when the salesman takes the prospect through well defined steps.

The steps are not separate and clear-cut but blend into one

integrated process. The steps are

Pre-approach

Approach

Interview

Objections

Close

PRE- APPROACH

Pre-approach means preparing to approach the prospect. The

requires forming some idea as to how the interview could begin and

proceed, for which you require basic information regarding his

income, his habits, his concerns, his interests, his saving capacity, his

family position, etc. These facts can be had from a variety of sources,

and you may even have to make a personal call on the man himself,

and get from him the facts you need to persuade him in taking a

decision.

The information collected during pre-approach will provide a

reasonable idea of the prospect‟s financial position and his needs and

concerns, and help to make the sale first in your mind, you will find it

easy to make the sale to the prospect.

It is advisable to write down the proposal. The advantages of a

written proposal are

Details are not missed by either the agent or the prospect.

This impression is more lasting.

The prospect can go back to earlier data on his own.

The prospect can understand, at his own pace.

It is easy to stop at any point, clarify questions and continue

further without losing the trend.

APPROACH

When you knock on the prospect‟s door and are face to face with him,

the dynamic phase of sales begins. You should make known to the

prospect, at the very earliest, that you are calling on him for life

insurance. The agent has to believe that he is calling on the prospect

to render him the valuable service of ensuring financial security for

him and his family.

The agent should open the talk by explaining the purpose of his call

in such a way so as to arouse enough interest. Otherwise, he may not

pay attention to the proposal. In most of the cases, the situation may

arise where the prospect will come out with a „No‟. At this juncture of

approach, when the prospect says „No‟, the agent should not be in a

hurry to convert the „No‟ into „Yes‟. The purpose of the approach stage

is not to sell insurance, but to sell an interview, which gives him the

opportunity to talk about what he wants the prospect to think about.

INTERVIEW

The interview should first of all, make the prospect listen. This

happens if the agent refers to things which interest him, his needs,

and lot of things that matter to him, without making it appear like

patronizing or flattering. Any hint that the prospect‟s decisions of the

(relating to insurance or investments) appropriate or need to be

changed, will have the opposite effect. The proposal being made by

the agent should be seen as beneficial and complimentary to the

existing arrangements.

The agent should follow some simple rules like the ones mentioned

below

Do not talk more than necessary.

Ask questions, and make the prospect talk. Make it interactive.

Create doubts and get him to ask questions for clarification.

Listen to the prospect‟s point of view carefully. Do not

interrupt, contradict or argue. People feel good when they are

listened too any then they listen better.

Make your talk interesting. Tell a true story of how life

insurance has helped families in various situations and how

families have suffered without it. Make the story have a

personal appeal. Use names for his children or relatives. That

will make the story more appealing.

Use pictorial aids, graphics and written presentations. If you

have a lap top use Power Point presentation.

Let the prospect write down the figures of his needs, of his

liabilities, of benefits of the insurance plan and of the premium.

This ensures concentrated attention.

Let your advice be in the best interest of the prospect not your

interest.

Successful agents prepare their presentations carefully every time.

They rehearse in their minds the way the interview should proceed.

This ensures that they do not fumble for ideas or the right words.

The ideas, too, come in the most natural and logical sequence. Lastly,

a prepared sales talk conveys more enthusiasm and conviction than a

talk without preparation. A well prepared approach ensures a

favorable interview.

OBJECTIONS

Prospects will raise objections, one after another. Objections are a

part of every sale. If prospects did not object, there would be no need

for salesmen. People would buy on their own. Also, if the prospect

remained silent, you will not know how his mind is working. The

objection is his way of referring to the further information that he

needs.

The entire selling process is, therefore, interspersed with objections.

At the stage of approach itself the prospect may say –„I do not believe

in life insurance‟, „I do not need life insurance‟, and the like. Such

objections are not against life insurance but rather against the agent

whom he wants to put off gracefully, or signs of indecision, or of a

fear of being “forced” into buying.

Then there are objections raised at the closing stage, such as, „I will

think it over‟, ‟I will consult my father‟, „See me next month when I

get my confirmation/increment/ promotion‟, etc. these objections

reveal an inability to take a major decision.

CLOSING

The „close‟ has to be sensed and timed, because very few prospects

will , of their own accord, say „I will insure‟. The agent sensing the

close, takes the prospect‟s positive decision for granted by asking for

his implied (not direct) consent. “Will you pay the premium by cash

or cheque?” do you have your school certificate at hand now or can

you give it tomorrow?” (Affirmative choice). A positive answer to any

of these questions is an indication to go ahead. If the interview does

not end with a close and is put off to another time, the interview

will have to be gone through all over again.

In selling life insurance, an appeal to the heart of the prospect is

more useful than an appeal to the head. Life insurance is bought for

the prime reason of protecting the loved ones, affording a good start

in love to the children, duty to aged parents, or perhaps a desire for

self –preservation in old age. So a sale can be accomplished only

when an appeal is made to one of these motives; an appeal to

sentiments of love, of affection and of concern. The agent need not be

an expert in psychology to do this.

CONCLUSION

From this I conclude Recruitment is one of the main departments

which place the right candidates to the right job. The recruiters

should identify the best candidates from different sources and job

sites .Recruiters should identify the problems faced during

recruitment and find an alternative to make work efficiently.