Q.(a) Explain ‘Transfers’ and ‘Promotions’ as internal sources of recruitment.
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🔒 Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Part (a)Concept understanding — Internal External Recruitment
Let’s start with something you already know. Imagine a college fest. The organising team needs a new coordinator. They can either pick someone who is already a member of the team — someone they know, whose work they’ve seen — or they can put up a notice asking any student from the entire college to apply. The first option is internal recruitment; the second is external recruitment.
Now bring that to a business. Every organisation, at some point, needs to fill a vacancy — a new job, a promotion, a transfer, or a replacement. The question is: where do you look for candidates? Do you look inside the company, among people who already work there? Or do you go outside, to the open job market?
Internal recruitment means filling a vacancy from within the organisation. Existing employees are considered — through promotions, transfers, or even asking current staff for referrals. The key idea is that the candidate pool is limited to people who already work there.
External recruitment means looking outside the organisation for candidates. This includes advertising jobs in newspapers or online, hiring through placement agencies, campus placements, or walk-in interviews. Anyone from the general public who meets the qualifications can apply.
The NCERT textbook (Class 12 Business Studies, Chapter 6 — Staffing) clearly states: Internal recruitment is a source of recruitment that seeks applicants from within the organisation, while external recruitment seeks applicants from outside the organisation. Both are valid, but they serve different needs.
Why does this distinction matter? Because each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Internal recruitment is faster and cheaper. You already know the person’s work ethic, skills, and attitude. It also boosts morale — employees see that hard work can lead to promotion. But it has a downside: it limits the pool of talent. You might miss out on someone brilliant from outside. Also, it can create a sense of entitlement or internal politics. …
Part (b)Concept understanding — Human Resource Functions
Human Resource Functions: The Engine That Runs an Organisation
Think of any organisation — a school, a hospital, a factory, or a bank. It has buildings, machines, money, and raw materials. But none of these things work by themselves. Someone has to operate the machines, teach the students, treat the patients, and manage the money. That "someone" is the human resource — the people.
Now, if you have a group of people working together, you cannot just leave them to figure things out on their own. You need to decide who to hire, how to train them, what to pay them, how to keep them motivated, and what to do if they want to leave. All of this planning, organising, and managing of people is what we call Human Resource Functions.
The Core Idea in One Sentence
Human Resource Functions are the set of activities that an organisation performs to attract, develop, motivate, and retain the right people to achieve its goals.
The NCERT textbook for Class 12 Business Studies (Chapter 6: Staffing) treats "Staffing" as one of the functions of management. Human Resource Functions are essentially the detailed breakdown of that staffing function — plus a few additional responsibilities that have grown over time.
Why This Matters — The Everyday Intuition
Imagine you are the captain of a school cricket team. You cannot just pick eleven random classmates and expect to win. You need to:
- Figure out which positions need filling (a fast bowler? a wicketkeeper?)
- Find people who can actually play those roles
- Train them in team strategies
- Decide who bats where and who bowls when
- Keep everyone motivated when the match gets tough
- Handle it if someone gets injured and needs replacement
That is exactly what HR functions do, but for an entire organisation with hundreds or thousands of employees.
The Major Human Resource Functions
The NCERT textbook and standard business studies curricula group these functions into a logical sequence. Here is how they flow:
1. Human Resource Planning (HRP)
Before you hire anyone, you need to know how many people you need and what kind of skills they should have. HRP is the process of forecasting the organisation's future demand for employees and comparing it with the current supply.
If the demand is higher than supply, you plan to recruit. If supply is higher, you may need to transfer, retrench, or offer voluntary retirement. This function prevents both shortage (work suffers) and surplus (money wasted on idle staff).
2. Recruitment and Selection
Once you know what you need, you have to find the right people.
- Recruitment is the process of inviting applications from potential candidates. It is like casting a net — you want as many suitable applicants as possible to apply. Sources include newspaper ads, campus placements, employee referrals, and online job portals.
- Selection is the process of choosing the best candidate from those who applied. This involves screening applications, conducting tests, interviews, and reference checks. The goal is to match the right person to the right job.
Recruitment and selection are not the same thing. Recruitment brings in applicants; selection picks the best one. A common exam mistake is to treat them as interchangeable.
3. Training and Development
Hiring someone does not mean they are ready to perform perfectly from day one. Training fills the gap between what an employee can do and what the job requires them to do.
- Training focuses on the current job — teaching a new salesperson how to use the company's billing software.
- Development focuses on future roles — preparing a junior manager to become a department head five years from now.
This function improves productivity, reduces errors, and helps employees grow within the organisation.
4. Performance Appraisal
How do you know if an employee is doing their job well? Performance appraisal is the systematic evaluation of an employee's work against set standards. It can be done through annual reviews, 360-degree feedback (where peers, subordinates, and supervisors all give input), or management by objectives (MBO).
The results are used for promotions, salary hikes, training needs, and sometimes termination decisions.
5. Compensation and Benefits
People work for money — but also for other rewards. Compensation includes:
- Direct financial payments: salary, wages, bonuses, commissions
- Indirect payments: insurance, medical benefits, retirement plans, paid leave
The goal is to design a pay structure that is fair, motivates performance, and stays within the organisation's budget.
6. Employee Maintenance and Industrial Relations
This function deals with the well-being of employees and the relationship between management and workers. It includes: …
Part (a)
Transfers. A transfer is the shifting of an employee from one job, department or location to another of roughly the same rank, without a substantial change in responsibilities, status or pay. It is used to fill vacancies with surplus staff, to relieve monotony, and to place people where their skills fit best. …
Part (a): A transfer is a sideways shift to a similar job; a promotion is an upward shift to a higher post.
Part (b): Placement + orientation assign and integrate the new employee; performance appraisal evaluates his work against standards.
Part (a)
Transfers and promotions are two important internal sources of recruitment, since both fill vacancies with people already in the organisation.
Transfers. A transfer means shifting an employee from one job, department or location to another that is broadly of the same level. There is no substantial change in his responsibilities, status, pay or skills required – it is essentially a horizontal or lateral movement. Transfers are used to fill vacancies with surplus staff from another section, to give employees variety and relieve monotony, to correct a wrong placement, and to make better use of an employee's abilities. They can improve the versatility and satisfaction of employees. …
Showing the 12 most recent of 32 on this concept.
- CBSE 2026Set 64/1/11 markMCQQ.Match column-I with column-II correctly and choose the appropriate option : Column-I (Approach) a. Income Approach b. Welfare Approach c. Basic Needs Approach d. Capability Approach Column-II (Characteristics) i. Proposed by International Labour Organisation ii. Health, education and access to resources – key factors iii. It is one of the oldest approach iv. Human being – targeted beneficiaries (A) a-ii, b-i, c-iv, d-iii (B) a-ii, b-i, c-iii, d-iv (C) a-iii, b-iv, c-ii, d-i (D) a-iii, b-iv, c-i, d-ii
›Reveal solutionSolution
The correct matching is a-iii, b-iv, c-i, d-ii — option (D).
This question asks you to match four approaches to human development with their defining characteristics. Each approach represents a different way of thinking about what "development" means and how it should be measured. Let us go through them one by one.
The Income Approach is the oldest way of looking at development. For decades, a country's progress was judged almost entirely by its per capita income or GDP. The assumption was simple: higher income means better living standards. So this approach matches with characteristic iii — "It is one of the oldest approach."
The Welfare Approach shifts the focus from money to people. Here, the government or society is seen as responsible for ensuring that basic services and support reach individuals. The human being is the ultimate target — not income figures or growth rates. That is why it matches with characteristic iv — "Human being – targeted beneficiaries."
The Basic Needs Approach was formally proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the 1970s. It argued that development must first ensure every person has access to essentials like food, shelter, clothing, clean water, and sanitation. So this approach matches with characteristic i — "Proposed by International Labour Organisation." …
- CBSE 2026Set MARCH1 markMCQQ.The main function of Human Resource Management is .......(a) (A) Increase in sales(b) (B) Quality control(c) (C) Man power planning(d) (D) Production
›Reveal solutionSolution
Man power (human resource) planning is the main function of HRM.
In this GSEB Class-12 Commerce staffing question, HRM covers manpower planning, recruitment, selection, training, development, appraisal and welfare. Its central and first function is manpower planning.
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- CBSE 2026Set MARCH1 markQ.State any one internal source of recruitment.
›Reveal solutionSolution
Internal sources of recruitment mean filling vacancies from within the organisation. The two main internal sources are Transfer and Promotion.
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- CBSE 2026Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Which is not a source of recruitment?(a) Internal source(b) External source(c) Selection(d) Promotion
›Reveal solutionSolution
Selection is not a source of recruitment; the sources are internal (e.g., promotion, transfer) and external.
Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and encouraging them to apply. Its sources are internal (transfers, promotions) and external (advertisements, campus placement, employment exchanges, etc.). Selection is the next step in staffing — choos …
- CBSE 2026Set ANNUAL1 markQ.What is the source of recruitment to fill up the vacant post by transfer?
›Reveal solutionSolution
Filling a vacant post through transfer draws on the internal source of recruitment.
Sources of recruitment are broadly divided into internal sources (filling vacancies from within the existing workforce, e.g. through transfer or promotion) and external sources (hiring from outside the organisation, e.g. through advertisements, placement agencies, campus recruitment). A transfer moves an existing employee to another post at roughly the same level of responsibility and pay, within the same organisation — because no outsider …
- CBSE 2025Set 66/4/11 markMCQQ.Evaluating an employee's current and/or past performance as against certain pre-determined standards, is known as : (A) Selection decision (B) Performance appraisal (C) Compensation (D) Preliminary screening
›Reveal solutionSolution
Evaluating an employee’s current or past performance against pre-set standards is called Performance appraisal — it is a formal, systematic process, not a one-time hiring step.
In any organisation, once people are hired and placed in roles, the next big question becomes: How well are they actually doing? This is where the Human Resource function of Performance Appraisal steps in. It is the structured, periodic evaluation of an employee’s work behaviour and results, measured against the standards that were set at the beginning of a review period.
Think of it as a report card for working professionals — but far more nuanced. The purpose is not just to label someone “good” or “bad,” but to identify strengths, uncover training needs, decide promotions, and sometimes even to validate the effectiveness of the selection process itself.
NotePerformance appraisal is different from the initial screening or selection. Selection happens before the person joins; appraisal happens after they have been working for some time.
Now, look at the options given in the question:
- (A) Selection decision — This is the final step in the hiring process where the organisation chooses the most suitable candidate from the shortlisted pool. It is about who gets the job, not about evaluating someone already on the job.
- (B) Performance appraisal — This is exactly what the question describes: a systematic evaluation of an employee’s current or past performance against predetermined standards. In plain terms, it means judging how well an employee has performed by comparing the actual work done against the standards fixed in advance.
- (C) Compensation — This refers to all forms of pay and rewards given to employees for their work. While performance appraisal may influence compensation decisions, compensation itself is not the evaluation process. …
- CBSE 2025Set MARCH1 markMCQQ.Which of the following are internal sources of recruitment ?(a) Campus interview(b) Promotion(c) Job contractors(d) Transfer(i)(a) and(b)(ii)(b) and(c)(iii)(a) and(d)(iv)(b) and (d)
›Reveal solutionSolution
The correct combination is (iv) (b) and (d) — Promotion and Transfer are the two internal sources of recruitment.
Recruitment sources in Kerala Plus Two Staffing are grouped into internal and external:
Internal sources External sources Transfers Direct recruitment Promotions Casual callers Advertisement Employment exchange Placement agencies & management consultants Campus recruitment / campus interview Recommendations of employees Labour contractors / job contractors Web publishing … - CBSE 2025Set MARCH1 markMCQQ.Internal Source of Recruitment is __________.(a) Transfer(b) Employment Exchange(c) Advertisement(d) Campus Recruitment
›Reveal solutionSolution
The correct answer is (a) Transfer, which is an internal source of recruitment.
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- CBSE 2025Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Write True or False: Recruitment is a positive activity.(a) True(b) False
›Reveal solutionSolution
True; recruitment is a positive process.
Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and encouraging them to apply, thereby building a large pool of candidates. Because it invites and attracts applicants (increasing their number), it is called a positive process. …
- CBSE 2025Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Name the process that helps in choosing the best person out of a number of prospective candidates for a job.(a) Recruitment(b) Selection(c) Training(d) Education
›Reveal solutionSolution
The process described is Selection.
Staffing involves several sequential steps: estimating manpower requirements, recruitment (inviting applications), selection, placement and orientation, training and development, performance appraisal, promotion and career planning, and compensation. Recruitment only generates a pool of prospective candidates; it does not choose among them. Selection is the step that follows recruitment — it is the process of choosing the best-fit candidate from the applicants through tools such as screening of applications, written tests, interviews, and medical examination, before an offer of appointment is made …
- CBSE 2025Set ANNUAL1 markQ.Fill in the blank: _________ refers to shifting an employee to a higher position.
›Reveal solutionSolution
The blank is filled by "Promotion."
Promotion is the upward reassignment of an employee to a position carrying greater authority, responsibility, status and usually higher pay, typically awarded on the basis of merit, seniority, or both. It is one of the key outcomes of the staffing function, following performance appraisal — an employee who performs well over time becomes eligible for advancement. Promotion differs from transfer (a lateral shift to a similar level position, often in a different department or location) and from training (which builds capability but does …
- CBSE 2024Set 66/1/11 markMCQQ.Match the terms given in Column I with their meanings in Column II: Column I: 1. Placement 2. Recruitment 3. Orientation 4. Performance Appraisal. Column II:(i) Introducing the selected employee to other employees and familiarising him with the rules and policies of the organization(ii) It refers to the employee occupying the position or post for which he/she has been selected(iii) Evaluating an employee's current and/or past performance as against certain predetermined standards(iv) The process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization. Choose the correct option from the following: (A) 1-(i), 2-(ii), 3-(iii), 4-(iv) (B) 1-(ii), 2-(iii), 3-(i), 4-(iv) (C) 1-(ii), 2-(iv), 3-(i), 4-(iii) (D) 1-(ii), 2-(i), 3-(iv), 4-(iii)
›Reveal solutionSolution
Each term in Column I is matched to its correct meaning in Column II, giving 1-(ii), 2-(iv), 3-(i), 4-(iii) — the correct option is (C).
Matching human resource terms to their meanings is a common CBSE Class 12 Business Studies (Staffing) exercise. Let us define each term and pick its meaning.
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Placement — the act of the selected candidate taking up the post for which he/she was selected. This matches meaning (ii): "It refers to the employee occupying the position or post for which he/she has been selected."
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Recruitment — the process of searching for prospective employees and encouraging them to apply for jobs. This matches meaning (iv): "The process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization."
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Orientation — introducing a newly selected employee to colleagues and familiarising him with the organisation's rules and policies. This matches meaning (i): "Introducing the selected employee to other employees and familiarising him with the rules and policies of the organisation." …
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