Importance and Objectives of Recruitment

Recruitment is often treated as a routine, almost clerical activity, but it performs several genuinely important functions for an organisation:

• Determines present and future manpower requirements — recruitment planning works in close conjunction with the organisation's estimate of how many people, and of what skill/qualification, it will need, both to fill current vacancies and to prepare for future ones (e.g. anticipated retirements, expansion plans).
• Increases the pool of job candidates at minimum cost — a well-run recruitment effort brings in enough qualified applicants that the organisation has genuine choice during selection, while keeping the cost of doing so (advertising, agency fees, time spent) as low as reasonably possible.
• Helps increase the success rate of the selection process — by reducing the number of visibly under-qualified or unsuitable applicants, recruitment lets the selection process concentrate its effort on a genuinely promising shortlist rather than sifting through a mass of unsuitable applications.
• Helps increase organisational effectiveness — in both the short and the long term, an organisation that consistently attracts capable people is better placed to achieve its objectives than one that struggles to fill vacancies with suitable candidates.
• Helps meet the organisation's legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its workforce — for instance, obligations relating to reservation policy or the employment of persons with disabilities, which a deliberate, well-documented recruitment process is better placed to demonstrate compliance with than an informal, word-of-mouth one.
• Identifies and prepares potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates, so that when a vacancy does arise, the organisation is not starting the search for suitable people from zero. …