An organization's recruitment and selection practices can make the difference between human capital composed of engaged and productive workers and a workplace that struggles with quality and performance issues. Human resources recruitment and selection best practices consist of clearly defined steps that ensure your organization is making the most of its employment practices in wise hiring decisions.
Sourcing Applicants
Sourcing applicants is a preliminary step in the recruitment and selection process that requires creativity and resourcefulness. Employment specialists and recruiters who start the recruitment process by sourcing candidates use a variety of methods to identify potential candidates. Sourcing candidates ranges from asking colleagues, current employees and other business contacts if they know anyone interested in making a career change or seeking employment to reading news items and announcements of experts recognized for achievements that coincide with the talent you need to fill a job vacancy. Sourcing candidates can also include cold-calling to potential candidates to determine if the person has an interest in learning more about job opportunities with your organization.
Attracting Talent
Best practices for attracting talent include posting an accurate description of job duties and expectations on an informative website. Recruiters should use select appropriate mediums for advertising open positions. This includes internal postings, and well-constructed job postings on online job boards. Effective job postings drive traffic to the organization's website. Therefore, an engaging website that contains information about tangible and intangible benefits of working for the company is one way to ensure the applicants who express an interest in your organization have an opportunity to learn as much as possible about your company.
Interviewing
Developing a structured interview process is another human resources best practice for recruitment and selection. The use of preliminary telephone interviews is an efficient way to introduce yourself and the company to the applicant. Preliminary telephone interviews also save time and resources in verifying the applicant's continued interest in the job vacancy, availability for a face-to-face interviews and work history. Face-to-face interviews should be customized for the type of job. For example, interviews for production-oriented, fast-paced work environments are typically shorter and include situation interview questions. Behavioral interviews may be ideal for upper-level positions and jobs where interpersonal communication, problem-solving and critical thinking skills are required qualifications.
Selection
In its executive summary of a research report titled "Recruitment and Selection Practices," Development Dimensions International stated: "Most organizations make extensive use of applications (89 percent), manual resume screening (80 percent), and reference checks (75 percent) in their selection systems." At first glance, these practices appear to be elementary; however, each step is an essential one in making wise hiring decisions. Formal applications, rather than simply using resumes, encourages applicants to provide accurate and precise information about work history. Although technology-driven applicant tracking systems are helpful when screening hundreds and, possibly, thousands of resumes for one or two vacancies, an employment specialist who manually screens resumes can get a better perspective about an applicant's expertise rather than relying on keyword searches that ATS's utilize. Reference checks ensure recruiters and hiring managers select suitable candidates whose professional and personal references can verify information about the candidate's background.
