Factors Affecting Recruitment

How easily, and from where, an organisation can recruit suitable candidates depends on a mix of factors within its own control and factors in the wider environment outside its control. These are usually grouped as internal factors and external factors.

Internal factors (within the organisation's own control):

• Company's pay package — the salary, allowances, and benefits an organisation offers relative to the market directly affects how attractive it is to prospective candidates; a below-market pay package narrows the pool of people willing to apply.
• Quality of work life — factors such as working conditions, autonomy, recognition, and work-life balance influence whether an organisation is seen as a desirable place to work, independent of pay alone.
• Organisational image/goodwill — a company with a strong reputation for fair treatment, growth opportunities, and stability finds it easier to attract capable applicants than one with a poor public image, even before any specific vacancy is advertised.
• Size of the organisation — a larger, well-established organisation is generally able to offer more attractive career paths and job security, and is often better known to prospective candidates, than a very small one.
• Recruitment policy of the organisation — the organisation's own stated policy (for example, a preference for promoting from within, or a policy of recruiting only through campus placements for entry-level posts) shapes which sources are used and how widely the search is cast.
• Cost involved in recruiting — the recruitment budget available limits how many sources (advertisements, agencies, campus drives) an organisation can realistically use for a given vacancy.
• Human resource planning — how well the organisation has planned its future manpower needs in advance affects how much lead time recruitment has to work with.

External factors (in the wider environment, outside the organisation's direct control):

• Supply and demand of specific skills in the labour market — if a particular skill is in short supply relative to demand (for example, a highly specialised technical skill), recruitment for that role becomes harder and more competitive, regardless of what the organisation itself does.
• Rate of unemployment prevailing — a high general unemployment rate typically makes recruitment easier, since a larger number of job-seekers are actively looking for work; a tight, low-unemployment labour market makes recruitment harder.
• Labour laws governing employment — statutory provisions relating to minimum wages, reservation, or restrictions on employing certain categories of people (e.g. child labour laws) constrain how and whom an organisation may recruit. …