Recruitment and selection (OCR GCSE Business): Revision Notes
3.4 Recruitment and selection
Why do businesses recruit?
Recruitment is the process where a business finds the most skilled applicant for a job vacancy. A business may need to recruit for many reasons:
Replace employees who have left: business needs to fill job vacancy
- Found new job elsewhere
- Fired or retired
- Injury or health issue
- Maternity or paternity leave
- Promoted Business growth: business needs more workers, supervisors and managers as it expands
Skills gap: business needs more skilled employees to reach their goals
Different recruitment methods to meet different business needs
- Internal recruitment: is where a business recruits someone who is already a part of the business, such as a promotion.
- External recruitment: is where a business recruits someone new who was not previously part of the business, such as when they need more skilled workers.
| Advantages of internal recruitment | Advantages of external recruitment |
|---|---|
| Motivates workers who want to be promoted | Bring new skills, ideas and enthusiasm to the business/team |
| Quicker selection process as the employee's details are already known | May have valuable knowledge if worked for competitors before |
| Candidates already know company culture well | May already experienced, meaning less training |
Person specification: document business must create outlining required personal qualities, work experience, qualifications and skills.
Job description: document business must make that describes the duties and responsibilities of the role, and what would happen on a daily basis.
Where can a business advertise jobs?
- Social media and LinkedIn
- Website/recruitment website
- Poster/newspapers/notice boards
Methods of selection
Businesses can use multiple different methods of selection to find out about candidates who apply for a role.
| Method | Description | Advantages |
|---|---|---|
| CV | Document outlining applicant's details, qualifications, employment history and references | Shows the applicant's skills and ability to organise information. You can easily see information at a glance. |
| Application form | Form applicants complete to provide certain information to the business | Business chooses what information they need so they can easily compare candidates |
| Letter of application | Letter written by applicant explaining why they would like to apply | Demonstrate communication skills such as punctuation and grammar and usually includes their personal qualities |
| Interviews | Applicant is asked certain questions by someone at the business, possibly as a group | Easier to judge how the candidate presents themselves and their communication skills |
| Tests | A test is provided to the applicant to test their knowledge, skills and thought process | Tests the applicant's knowledge for the job and shows how suitable they are. It is easy to compare candidates in this way. |
| Group activities | Group of applicants are asked to work together on a particular task or particular activity | Assess their teamwork and communication skills and see how they interact with others |
| References | Someone who knows the applicant gives information about their work ethic and qualities | Very honest and more reliable source on how the applicant will fit into the business' team |