When you make announcements for job opportunities to attract people who possess certain qualities to fill vacant positions, you have initiated the process of recruitment.
Having mentioned that, recruitment can be broken down into the following stages: attracting people/talents, screening to determine those that are qualified, and selecting the best or most qualified to join the firm or organization.
Before we dive deeper into the recruitment process and the factors that affect it, it is worth mentioning that recruitment is a continuous process. Virtually every organization will go through the “recruitment cycle” from time to time as vacancies open up during the growth and development phase.
What are the functions of recruitment?
As we mentioned earlier, recruitment involves attracting people to apply for job vacancies. And the end result is selecting the most competent individual to fill in the vacancy.
As you may already know, the task of planning and coordinating recruitment falls squarely on the desk of the HR manager of an organization. It is the HR manager’s responsibility to attract capable applicants and provide job descriptions and specifications upon which the recruitment is based.
The functions of the recruitment department are as follows:
- Assessing recruitment
- Coming up with job design and development
- Managing advertisements and publicity
- Contacting prospective candidates or talents
- Arranging preliminary examinations and assessment of applications
- Shortlisting qualified candidates and calling for interviews
- Developing an efficient selection process like interviewing or testing
- Onboarding the best candidate
Having highlighted the functions of recruitment, we can now focus on the factors that affect recruitment.
What are the factors of recruitment?
Factors that affect the recruitment functions are broadly classified into internal and external. As you can imagine, the internal factors can be controlled by the organization while their external counterparts aren’t.
What are the internal factors that affect recruitment?
Internal factors that often affect recruitment involve the size of the organization, the recruitment policy, the organization’s image, and of course, the image of the job.
Let’s take a closer look at these factors.
- The size of the organization
The size of an organization affects how organizations manage their recruitment process. As expected, a larger organization tends to recruit more than their smaller counterparts, and they are more like to manage recruitment processes better.
- Recruiting policy
Recruitment policies are also a source of concern in recruitment processes. While some organizations like to recruit outside the company, others look inwards for qualified people to fill certain positions.
- Image of the organization
Demonstration of goodwill and good public relations also plays a role in the recruitment process of the organization.
If a company or an organization has a good reputation or positive image, it’s more likely to attract competent candidates when it advertises vacant positions. Think about it, how many people are willing to apply for a job at an organization with a bad image or reputation.
- Image of the job
“Image of the job” refers to the package that comes with a job offer. When people know that a job offers better staff remuneration, quick promotions, employee empowerment, and better working conditions, such vacancies will be flooded by applications and have a greater chance of getting more competent candidates to send in their applications.
External factors that affect recruitment
Demography, unemployment rate, the labor market, and political dynamics are arguably the top external factors that affect recruitment.
- Demography
Certain jobs consider demographic factors during recruitment. Some of these demographics include age, gender, religion, and ethnicity, among other factors. These demographic factors often significantly impact the recruitment process, and different organizations consider them differently.
- The labor market
The balance between demand and supply of labor also influences the recruitment process of organizations. Usually, when demand for certain skills is higher than supply, the chances are that recruitment processes will be more tasking to follow through by the recruiter.
On the other hand, if the supply for a skill is relatively higher than its demand, it makes the recruitment process to make recruitment easier.
- Unemployment rates
Unemployment rates also affect the recruitment process. How? If unemployment is high in a given area, companies are most likely to attract lots of interested applicants, which provides the HR team with variety. That way, they have a pool of talents to choose from.
- Political environment
It’s quite easy to see how political dynamics can affect the recruitment process. For instance, when a new government comes into power, it could change recruitment policies by implementing new rules and regulations. And organizations will have to adjust to the changes.
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Conclusion
Hopefully, you have better insights into the recruitment process and the factors that affect it. If you are looking to outsource recruitment to a reliable recruitment agency, it’s always best to keep an eye out for their track records and their capacity to manage recruitment processes.