Understanding the Pros and Cons of Various Recruitment Approaches

 

The victory in recruiting talent is significantly impacted by the choice of recruiting technique. The wrong choice leads to more than just wasted effort as well as a noticeable opportunity cost. The business world is experiencing a digital revolution which means recruiters should aware of the various changes in the industry. For an instance, all kinds of automation and AI tools have been introduced to the industry to simplify the recruitment process. Selecting the right alternative can speed up the whole hiring process and finally end up with finding the ideal candidate (Muscalu, 2015). 

What Are the Advantages of Internal Recruitment ???

Internal recruitment may have a number of potential advantages (DeVaro & Morita, 2013).

·         Minimize the cost of pre-employment activities

·         Lower cost for posts

·         Fast recruitment process with minimal cost

·         Vanished the cost for orientation programs

·         Easiness in attracting candidates since internal applicants are already much aware about the position and the company.

·         Helpful when selecting the right person because the management already know the capability of the candidate

·         Reduce the inappropriate decisions

·         Motivate the current employees as they see internal recruitment as promotion opportunities

·         Increasing employees’ loyalty towards the company

It has found that external options are less trustworthy when comparing to the internal options. Individual selection from internal referrals, promotions and internal recruitment have found significant contribution in lowering the turnover ratio when comparing to external approaches. When it comes to the practical world, as internal recruitment is cheaper and quicker than advertising in various media and interviewing outsiders and the time spent in training and socialization is also reduced (Alwi & et al, 2022).

I was promoted from the post of Assistant Marketing Manager to Marketing Manager in my company. It is an internal recruitment and because of that, the company has been enjoying many advantages. They thought that it was the correct decision since the management knows about my abilities, skills and knowledge to perform the role successfully. However, they had to fill the Assistant Marketing Manager position again as I was promoted.

Disadvantages of Internal Recruitment ??? 😕😕 

There can be identified some disadvantages also with internal recruiting. Some of them are as follows (Muscalu, 2015).

Prevents the organization bringing in new blood with fresh ideas and with outside experience and it may leave a gap

·         Again creating another vacant position since the internal staff people were selected to the current vacant position and then their previous job position would be vacant

·         Other internal candidates may get mentally down because of promotions frustrations

·         Generating interpersonal conflicts regarding the promotion opportunities

Sometimes, it is hard to seek for the best suitable candidate within the organization itself 

What Are the Advantages of External Employee Recruitment 

Method ???

External recruiting methods can be categorized as formal and informal. Referrals, rehiring the former employees, walk-in candidates are the instances for informal recruiting types and they are cheaper than formal ones. As discussed in previous blog posts, the recruiter is able to find more applicants by the use of formal external recruitment methods. Posting job vacancies through various online methods and recruiting agencies lead to acquire a large number of potential candidates (Wilkinson & et al, 2019).

·         New thinking of employees brings a progressive change in the company

·         Joining of a new employee leads the existing employees to develop their performance.

·         Providing the company with a pool of skilled candidates

When consider about the e-recruitment, it is considerably inexpensive method when comparing with other traditional external recruitment methods and via online recruiting, the company can reach to a massive number of applicants at any time at anywhere (Wilkinson & et al, 2019). However, there are drawbacks also such as receiving many poor and irrelevant applications, recruiter has to manage their profiles in social media and there are passive job seekers as well. Recruitment Agencies can be recognized as one who possess a pool of relevant resumes. It is a time saving and convenient method. Though it is a good method, there are some visible disadvantages also like limited pool of potential candidates and not suitability of candidates to the position (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

Are there any Disadvantages in External Employee Recruiting?? 

Although external staff recruiting is a good method in recruiting, it consumes more time, no guarantee of the selected one of being success in work related tasks  and bit expensive than internal recruitment methods and informal external methods (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). 

·         Effects on existing employee morale

·         Have to invest on training process

·         Increasing the cost

·         Time consuming

According to the company I am working for, they are widely using the e-recruitment method to attract suitable candidates and the company receives various type of large number of CVs. However, the company has to manage their social network pages to attract the candidates as well as they get the help of recruitment agencies by bearing the higher cost of it. 

Method	Advantages	Disadvantages
	o    A rapid process     o    Interviewees may have prior   familiarity in the role     o    Inexpensive to recruit and advertise roles internally     o    Candidates will already be known to the business	o  Typically, a small pool of candidates  o  A lack of new ideas in the company      o  Applicants may not be experienced in the role
External recruitment	o    Fresh enthusiasm and skills     o    Bring new ideas into the business     o    Larger pool of potential candidates	o    Takes time to settle into the organization     o    New personnel are not known to the business     o    Expensive to recruit
Recruitment agencies	o    Often a quicker process     o    Can get staffs at short notice     o    Find high quality applicants	o    Can be expensive to use     o    May not find the best candidates
Media selection	o    Can mean that a huge number of potential applicants see adverts     o    Can be personalized to the company     o   Can be cheap	o    Prospective applicants may not engage with the chosen media source     o    Smaller businesses are limited on their media selection
Application	o    Businesses gain vital information about applicants through a letter of application     o    CVs provide a lot of insight about skills, experience and qualifications     o    Informal contact may save time for businesses and applicants	o    Application letters and CVs can take time to sift through for shortlisting
Interview	o    A face to face interview allows better reading of body language and facial expressions     o    A telephone interview is fast and convenient, possibly less pressure for an interviewee     o    An online interview can be conducted from anywhere	o    Face to face interviews can take time to set up and conduct. They often require travelling         o    In a telephone interview it can be difficult to tell if an answer is genuine     o    An online interview or telephone interview could be interrupted or stopped due to a technical issues
Alternatives to interview	o    Testing is a great way to understand what skills and attributes a person has     o    Group testing allows a business to see how applicants work with other people     o    Role-play is a great way to see how applicants perform in pressurized situations	o    Testing doesn’t show whether a personality will fit well with the business, or how hard working a person is     o    Group tests and role-play can be difficult to organize     o    Difficult to observe, mainly with large groups

Table 01 (DeVaro, 2020)

References

Alwi, S. K. & et al, 2022. Internal vs. External Recruitment: The Impact of Operational and Financial Factors. KASBIT Business Journal,, 15(2), pp. 115-129. [online] Accessed on 05th December 2023

Armstrong, M. & Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s Handook of Human Resource Management Practice. 13 ed. s.l.:Kogan Page Limited.[online] Accessed on 05th December 2023

DeVaro, J., 2020. Internal hiring or external recruitment?. IZA World of Labor. [online] Accessed on 03rd December 2023

DeVaro, J., and H. Morita. “Internal promotion and external recruitment: A theoretical and empirical analysis.” Journal of Labor Economics 31:2 (2013): 227–269. [online] Accessed on 04th December 2023

Muscalu, E., 2015. Source of Human Resources Recruitment Organization. Revista AcadeEM.IEI Forteler Terestre NR., 3(79), pp. 351-359. [online] Accessed on 04th December 2023

Wilkinson, A. & et al, 2019. The SAGE Handbook of Human Resource Management. 2 ed. s.l.:SAGE Publications. [online] Accessed on 05th December 2023