HR practice

Every organization's foundation is built on the practice of human resources (HR). HR is in charge of recruiting top talent, keeping personnel, deciding on the benefits package, and educating and disciplining staff members (Nobles 43). Over time, HR has expanded and now encompasses areas including hiring, salary, diversity, development, benefits, and employment laws. The paper will provide insight into recruiting as a discipline within human resources, trends in recruitment and selection, the field's future, and then take a closer look at how various sectors use recruitment methods inside their own businesses.

Establishing Recruitment

The recruitment process is not done solely by the HR department. It involves interactions of the HR with the managers, current employees, and recruitment agencies. All these parties work together to fulfill the goal of filling a vacant position in the business by a suitable candidate (Nobles 52). It I the most sensitive disciple in the Human Resource processes because the job market is continually changing.

The first step in recruitment involves acquiring the necessary talent in achieving the goals and objectives of a company. The company together with the HR department starts with listing the required qualifications, knowledge base and skills needed for each position in the firm. They then decide on the methods of advertising for willing people to apply for the job (Nobles 53). The recruitment channels can be through employment agencies, or advertisements in print, broadcast or social media. The recruitment adverts have to be accompanied by a terms and conditions clause to protect the company from being sued for malpractice in the HR (Nobles 54). Some companies have a graduate recruitment program where they get their employees straight from various universities.

The recruitment process plays a significant role in the company and is vital in creating a competitive advantage for the company. The recruitment strategy supports marketing activities of an organization (Nobles 55). In businesses especially those with a robust online presence, the hiring of new people could start a topic of discussion online which to a certain level can be tapped into for marketing purposes.

Recruitment provides an avenue for HR departs in companies to identify the talents at their disposal and offer internal promotions to the deserving employees. Instead of hiring external people for senior posts, a company can use the recruitment strategy to promote people to new positions (Nobles 60). The same concept is used for succession planning in firms where they decide on the future leaders of the company from the already existing employees. Internal promotions as a method of recruitment require clear rules to avoid conflict in the organization.

Challenges in Recruitment Discipline

There are many challenges in the recruitment discipline especially since the HR is keen to provide the company with the best talent in the market.

The need to hire people in a short period is one of the most significant challenges facing HR personnel. HR departments receive many requests for hire for different people annually (Senyucel 21). The agencies are faced with the challenge of sifting through the receive application to find the most suitable candidate. In addition to that, recruitment process in most companies is a compilation of multiple interviews, to culminate to the successful candidate who is a time-consuming exercise. Companies are now growing fast and the need to fill various positions at the same time is a challenge to recruiters (Senyucel 22). Due to globalization, the recruiters have to look for global candidates to fill positions in different parts of the world.

Lack of sufficient resources for the recruitment process. The HR department needs substantial budget allocations to facilitate placing adverts in different forums to seek out candidates for various positions in their companies (Senyucel 22). The HR department may also lack sufficient human resource to carry out interviews to scrutinize the available talent for their jobs.

It remains quite the challenge for HR personnel to get the perfect applicant for a vacancy in any organization. Even with the large volumes of resumes received, the background and skills required may not match what is needed especially in regards to the number of years of experience required for more technical and managerial positions (Senyucel 27). The situation is made worse by the competitive nature of the job market which means all companies are fighting for limited qualified people. HR departments are more likely to adjust the job description to fit realistic expectations (Senyucel 30). In addition to not finding an employee who perfectly fits the position, HR personnel finds it challenging to get people who will fit into the organization’s culture. New employees may not be able to be part of the already existing team which slows down the working process.

Inefficient understanding and use of analytical methods is a common challenge in HR departments. Most HR departments are not able to maintain the volume of information they get using analytical tools or software (Senyucel 34). The enormous quantities of resumes and other data collected can be analyzed and stored for future reference, but most HR departments are not able to use such tools. It becomes difficult to make sense of the already collected data.

Strategies and Trends in Recruitment

There are new trends in recruitment that companies can adapt to get the most out of the recruitment exercise.

Use of social media for recruitment is the most recent trend for HR personnel. The most relevant social media platform for recruitment is LinkedIn as it is more professional than other social media platforms (Headworth 78). HR departments can subscribe to a premium account in LinkedIn that has features that enable searching for the right candidates using people’s job titles and location. Alternatively, recruiters can pay for adverts in social media platforms to promote the vacancies in their companies for interested people to apply (Headworth 79). HR departments should collaborate with IT departments to make sure the company website is mobile friendly so as not to lose out on qualified candidates as most people apply for jobs using their phone.

Another trend in the recruiting discipline is taking into the attention of the passive audience. The passive is made up of people who are already in employment, therefore are not actively searching for new jobs. However, if an excellent opportunity is presented to them for another post, they are likely to consider it (Headworth 82). Companies are outsourcing headhunters who spend time looking studying the passive market to link people with better jobs that utilize their skills and experience.

Building a strong brand is part of the long game recruiters are using to get new employees. In creating a strong brand, HR personnel should ensure that they respond to the interviewees in time and continuously update them on the process of their application. It is not uncommon for companies to be called out on social media for slow recruitment process or lack of feedback on an application (Senyucel 50). Companies should strive to get feedback from applicants on how the interview went, did it meet the expectations of the candidate, and was the meeting too long, among other questions to improve their brand and especially on the HR practice.

Millennials are the new workforce in the job market, and their needs at work are different from that of other generations that have preceded them. Companies should consider this and prepare the workplace for more millennial to take up positions in the business (Senyucel 52). To create space for the young people, HR should move the employees with developed skills to other areas and invest in training for the millennials to fit their new roles.

Recruitment in the Technology Market (Google)

Google is a technology company with employees from around the globe (Feloni no page). Its recruitment process has changed over the years, and they have adopted the new trends in recruitment to make hiring efficient. Google receives millions of job applications annually with only several thousand vacancies to offer.

The bosses do screening for potential employees, together with the part of the future colleagues of an applicant and a hiring committee. It therefore takes about six weeks to confirm a hire at Google (Feloni n.p). Initially, it took senior management about half of the week dealing with issues of recruitment. The company now relies on four principles when recruiting.

The first principle is setting high standards for their potential candidates. By refusing to compromise on high standards, Google eliminates almost half of the applicants they receive. The criteria are based on the attributes the company wants from their employees concerning skill and experience (Feloni n.p). The HR at Google emphasizes on exercising patience in the recruitment exercise so as not to compromise of the quality of new hires.

The second principle for Google is that they do not outsource recruitment service unless they are venturing into a new country.Google initially used job boards to advertise but found out it is not a valid method as applicant receive generic mass messages for vacancies and the Google adverts may not stand out (Feloni n.p). Now Google announces their jobs on their website or gets applicant from referrals of their existing employees. Google also uses social media platforms like LinkedIn, Google+ and alumni databases of various universities.

The third principle in recruitment is ensuring that the assessment of the candidates is objective. The burden of hiring should not be left to only one person in the organization to avoid bias (Feloni no page). Google uses subordinates and peers during interviews to ensure that the process is objective.

The last principle is creating an active band so that people are always interested in joining the company. Almost everyone wants to work in the company due to the diversity of the employees, the creativity, and innovations in the business (Feloni n.p). The brand recognition means, the company spends little on advertising for vacant positions.

Recruitment in the Retailer Market (Walmart)

Walmart is a company in the retail industry with global chains. Walmart uses internal and external recruitment for its vacant positions (Thompson no page). There are three methods the company uses in internal recruitment methods. The first process is to recruit the current employees to managerial or supervisory positions. Alternatively, the company can use its trainees to occupy specific vacancies in the business (Thompson n.p). Lastly, Walmart can transfer some of it employees to vacant positions on a short-term basis before looking for an employee for the job.

When using external recruitment, the company advertises its vacancies on their website and recruits from the respondents of such advertisements. Walmart also targets campuses as a source of employees and even agreed with American Public University to get employees from the institution as well as educate their current employees from the same school (Thompson n.p). The company also keep records of previous applicants and uses this method for recruitment. Walmart does the external hiring of their employees and does not involve job boards from third-party advertising companies.

Changes in recruitment in the next ten years

Recruitment is a discipline that has shown a significant change in the twenty-first century, and this will continue to change. The trend of using online venues to advertise vacant positions will remain but become vigorously. Companies will stop relying on job boards from other third-party firms and fully embrace technology (Timms 14). Matching candidates to vacant positions will be like online dating where the match is based on keyword and algorithms.

Recruitment will be similar to marketing in the next ten years. Companies are setting themselves for brand recognition, and HR departments are following suit (Timms 16). Applicants will seek jobs in companies that have compelling content on online forums and stand out from other businesses.

Recruitment in the next ten years will go to be a discipline on its own away from Human Resource. As a stand-alone discipline, hiring will have a governing body or association to regulate and lobby for the needs of recruiters. It will be a professional service that will attract a minimum entry requirement into the market. The minimal element may be in the form of an entrance exam into the profession to protect the reputation of the discipline (Timms 22). As a discipline, there will be training for recruiters to help recruiters learn of new trends in the market as well as understand the needs of different companies.

Companies will also be able to outsource the work of recruitment to established recruiting firms. By outsourcing, they cut costs on advertisements as well as reduce the time spent in interviewing would be employees (Timms 28). Outsourcing the work of recruiting also relieve the pressure of holding big data in companies from the volumes of applicants for different posts over the years.

Recruitment will become paperless in the next ten years. Using online registration and apps to apply for jobs will continue and in turn render the process paperless (Timms 31). Going paperless also encourages recruitment globally as applications can be made.

Conclusion

Recruitment is a diverse field that is the backbone of the HR practice. According to the interviews I carried out, the discipline has moved from on-site billboards and poster to mainly using the internet for recruitment. Globalization and technological advancement are changing how companies work and expanding business so that they are in constant need of new employees. The market is filled with educated people who are looking for a position to grow their skills and improve their lives. The demand for jobs surpasses the supply making it essential for HR to use efficient methods to get the right people for their companies.

Works Cited

Feloni, Richard. Google's HR boss explains the company's 4 rules for hiring the best employees. 18 February 2016. 23 November 2017. <http:/ww.businessinsider.com/how-google-hires-exceptional-employees-2016-2?IR=T>.

Headworth, Andy. Smart Social Media Recruitment Strategies. London: Ark Group, 2011. Document.

Nobles, Larry and Finkel, Steve M. Search and Placement! A Handbook for Success. St. Louis: Time Being Books, 2014. Document.

Senyucel, Zorlu. Managing the Human Resource in the 21st Century. London: Bookbon, 2010. Document.

Thompson, Andrew. Walmart's HRM: Recruitment, Selection, Employee Retention. 28 January 2017. http://panmore.com/walmart-human-resource-management-recruitment-selection-employee-retention. 23 November 2017.

Timms, Perry. HR2025: Human Resource Management in the Future. London: Bookbon, 2015. Document.