🔍 Recruitment
Big Idea: Recruitment is the process of finding and attracting suitable candidates to fill job vacancies. It involves identifying the need, defining the role, advertising, and selecting the best person.
Steps in the recruitment process
- Step 1: Identify the vacancy -- a new role is created or an existing employee leaves
- Step 2: Job analysis -- determine what the role involves and what skills/qualifications are needed
- Step 3: Job description -- a document outlining the duties, responsibilities and conditions of the role
- Step 4: Person specification -- a document describing the ideal candidate's skills, qualifications, experience and personal qualities
- Step 5: Advertise the vacancy -- internally (within the business) or externally (outside)
- Step 6: Shortlist and select -- review applications, interview candidates, and choose the best fit
Job Description vs Person Specification: Job description = about the JOB (duties, hours, location, salary). Person specification = about the PERSON (qualifications, experience, skills, personality). Exams often ask you to distinguish these two documents.
Internal recruitment
Filling a vacancy with someone already working in the business (e.g. promotion, transfer).
- Advantages: cheaper (no external advertising), faster process, candidate already knows the business culture, motivates other employees who see promotion opportunities
- Disadvantages: limits the pool of candidates, may cause resentment among colleagues who were not chosen, does not bring in fresh ideas, creates another vacancy that still needs filling
External recruitment
Filling a vacancy with someone from outside the business (e.g. job ads, recruitment agencies, social media).
- Advantages: larger pool of candidates, brings in new ideas and perspectives, may find someone with specialist skills not available internally
- Disadvantages: more expensive (advertising, agency fees), takes longer, new employee needs induction and time to learn the culture, risk of hiring someone unsuitable
In exam scenarios about fast-growing businesses (like BTO expanding from 1 to 3 restaurants), external recruitment is usually necessary -- but the risks of hiring people who do not match the original culture are real and should be discussed.