subject: Why Have A Recruitment Strategy? [print this page] This is usually achieved by having an effective recruitment strategy in place. It is necessary to match up future workforce requirements with the predicted supply of labor.
The need for recruitment is determined by forecasting the number of employees needed in the future while also incorporating the estimates of turnover, transfers, promotions and redundancies.
There are several reasons why an organization may in future need to recruit more employees and these need to be taken into consideration in devising a Workforce Plan:
* Expansion of the business due to (i) increase in sales, (ii) expansion into new markets (iii) development of new products
* Existing staff move to a competitor's organization
* Existing staff leave due to retirement, illness, maternity leave, parental leave
* The organization requires new employees with new skills
* The business is re-locating and not all staff wish to geographically re-locate
To plan for these staff 'movements' an organization needs to devise a Workforce Plan incorporating a recruitment strategy. This Workforce Plan will anticipate what vacancies will exist and when to recruit for these vacancies. The first step in developing a Workforce Plan is to devise detailed job descriptions of the anticipated vacancies.
A job description is a detailed explanation of the roles, duties and requirements of a particular role. It also includes the kind of qualifications, experience, competencies and personal attributes the ideal incumbent should have. Job descriptions are vital documents which are essential to any recruitment strategy.
Once anticipated vacancies and their job descriptions have been determined, a recruitment strategy, to be incorporated into a Workforce Plan, can be devised. This strategy will need to cover the following factors:
* Labor supply - Once you have determined the numbers and types of vacancies that are likely to come up, you need to determine where you are going to source new incumbents. Staff can be sourced either from within an organization, or external to it. If sourced from within an organization, a 'skills audit' can be conducted to determine the skill set of existing employees.
The advantage of sourcing staff from within is that you can source staff who are already culturally suited to the organization; it is also more predictable and less expensive. If sourcing staff externally, the advantage is that 'new blood', fresh approaches and cultural change can be facilitated.
* Skills inventories - Following any audit of staff competencies, qualifications and experience, an organizational data base which records and updates information, can be devised. This will help you determine whether anticipated vacancies can be filled by internal staff, or whether external recruitment needs to take place.
* Career and succession planning - The aim of career and succession planning is twofold (i) from employees' point of view, to keep staff rewarded and working happily, and (ii) from the organization's point of view, to keep staff working productively, and having a ready pool of candidates to fill anticipated vacancies.
Retaining staff, or being able to readily recruit new staff, is essential to maintaining an organization operating effectively and efficiently. This is particularly true, for example, in an organization's sales department, where goods and services need to be sold to secure the company's income.
A good Workforce Plan will help an organization to effectively recruit and sustain a complete compliment of staff.
