External Sources of Recruitment

External sources bring candidates in from outside the organisation. There is a wide range of external sources commonly used:

• Direct recruitment / notice board — a notice displayed at the factory gate or company premises inviting applications for a vacancy; commonly used for filling casual or unskilled vacancies.
• Casual callers / unsolicited applications — applications received from candidates who approach the organisation on their own initiative, without any vacancy having been specifically advertised; the organisation maintains a file of such applications for future reference.
• Media advertisement — advertising a vacancy in newspapers, magazines, or other media, describing the job and the qualifications required; this is one of the most widely used external sources, since it reaches a very large audience.
• Employment exchanges — government-run offices where job-seekers register their particulars, and employers can notify vacancies to be matched with registered candidates; in India, employers in certain categories are statutorily required to notify vacancies to the local employment exchange.
• Placement agencies and management consultants — private-sector firms that specialise in helping organisations find suitable candidates, particularly for managerial, technical, and specialised professional posts, in exchange for a fee.
• Campus recruitment — visiting educational institutions (colleges, technical institutes, management schools) to recruit students who are about to complete their studies; widely used for hiring fresh, entry-level talent in bulk.
• Recommendations of existing employees (employee referral) — asking existing employees to recommend suitable candidates from among their own contacts, on the reasoning that an employee is unlikely to recommend someone who would reflect poorly on them.
• Recruitment at factory gate — casual or unskilled workers gathering directly at the factory gate on a given day when the organisation is known to be hiring; still practised, particularly for daily-wage or unskilled labour.
• E-recruitment / online job portals and the organisation's own website — inviting and receiving applications through online job portals and the organisation's own careers page, which has become one of the fastest-growing external sources given its wide reach and low cost per applicant.

Advantages of external sources:

• Brings in fresh talent and new ideas into the organisation, along with fresh perspectives that existing employees may not offer.
• Widens the choice available — the pool of potential candidates is far larger than the organisation's existing employees alone.
• Right kind of people for specialised posts — external sources make it possible to hire people with specialised qualifications or experience that may not exist anywhere within the current workforce.
• Brings healthy competitive spirit, as existing employees know that promotion is not guaranteed purely by seniority and outside candidates are also considered on merit.

Disadvantages of external sources: …