Recruitment and selection process Importance and Benefits and step by step process
What is recruitment and selection?
Recruitment and selection process is the name given to the HR subsystem that has the function of attracting and choosing the most suitable people to work in a certain position in an organization.
It is very common for these terms to be used together, as if they were synonyms or a single activity. However, these are two distinct functions that complement each other and depend on each other to ensure greater efficiency.
We will understand each of them better below.
Recruitment
Recruitment is the set of information, procedures and techniques used to attract potentially qualified candidates to fill existing vacancies in an organization.
The purpose of recruitment is to bring in as many professionals as possible, within the necessary specifications.
Therefore, we are talking about steps that involve the description of vacancies, dissemination in the relevant channels and receiving CVs and applications. The way a vacancy is described attracts or deters good candidates.
This is because this is the first contact between the company and a talent. The better and more specific the vacancy is advertised , the more chance that candidates suitable for the role will forward their resume, thus avoiding a flood of out-of-profile resumes.
Another interesting point to think about when recruiting is: how well-known is my company? How interested are people in working in your organization?
There are companies that are “dreams of consumption” for candidates — usually companies that have good visibility and a lot of credibility .
In view of this aspect, if your company is not very familiar within the scenario in which it is inserted, it is necessary to include a small summary of the history and main objectives of the organization, thus generating a desire in candidates to work in this corporation.
So far, HR analysts do not take any eliminatory or qualifying action.
Selection
Selection is the stage in which the professional will be chosen to fill the vacancy.
From the beginning of recruitment to the end of selection, there are numerous actions and activities aimed at finding candidates who are aligned with the desired profile and with greater potential for involvement with the organizational culture .
The criteria for making a good selection are very variable, depending on the characteristics of the position in question. In the recruitment and selection process — as a whole — different tools and tactics are used that make the results more accurate, as we will see in detail.
Importance of the recruitment and selection process
When there is difficulty in attracting suitable candidates, the great challenge is to ensure that the candidate’s values and way of working are in line with the organizational culture.
If the hiring is done by professionals who do not fit into their structure — or who remain shortly after being hired, the indicators tend to show that the result of this process was negative, generating a waste of energy, time and money.
Benefits of a well-structured recruitment and selection process
Companies that understand the relevance of the recruitment and selection process reap important benefits both in the short, medium and long term.
Among them, we will highlight the most impacting for the business results in the market. follow up.
cost reduction
Cost reduction is always one of the goals of any entrepreneur. Using the right tools and procedures makes HR spend less time and effort on filling vacancies.
Analysts can better manage the routine and increase their productivity . By adding up each small gain, the difference becomes even more visible.
Strengthening the business strategy
Hiring people needs to be aligned with the guidelines outlined in the company’s strategic planning. This involves issues such as cultural fit , skills, competencies and technical capabilities of the teams that are formed.
A well-structured recruitment and selection process is capable of finding the right professionals for the challenges that the organization has set out to overcome.
Strengthening organizational culture
Since we mentioned cultural fit, people are currently looking for companies that share the same values as them.
Characteristics such as work accidents with sick leave, and unpaid leave for personal matters. In the latter case, the firm may cut the employee’s salary and area of activity are no longer the main decision points and organizational culture has gained increasing weight .
All this starts with the selection, which needs to be more careful and adopt specific methodologies to provide this differential.
Reduction in turnover
In an era in which young people tend not to stay in the same company for many years, retention has become one of the biggest difficulties in HR.
The best way to mitigate the turnover problem is to attack one of the root causes: selection failure.
A well-hired professional remains satisfied with his admission for much longer and is able to develop and grow internally.
Recruitment and selection step by step
So far, we know a little more about the concepts that involve the recruitment and selection process, the benefits it can generate and who are the professionals who work in it.
Now, let’s list the necessary steps to have a well-done process and generate better results.
Plan vacancies to be filled
Before the visible stages of recruitment and selection, it is essential to understand the context in three areas: knowing each vacancy specifically, participating in decisions about new vacancies and being clear about the general provision of new positions in the organization.
Getting to know the vacancies better
The first aspect means knowing in depth the vacancy that will be filled and its requirements. Some data are very relevant, such as:
- formation;
- Technical abilities;
- Skills;
- behavioral profile .
For this, the ideal is that this information is aligned with the manager of the area that requests the vacancy. As much as HR has control over the activities of the process and knows the vacancy well, it is the applicant who lives the routine of the sector.
He is the one who knows the details that will make the difference and determine which factors are the most relevant for that specific vacancy.
However, all this technical knowledge is not enough for a vacancy to be well described by the leader. The role of HR, at this moment, is to provide support so that it can evolve as a people manager .
Thus, he will become familiar with the main terms of the HR vocabulary and convey his needs more clearly.
This development is also part of the strategic role of training and empowering leaders to manage people in their respective areas.
Participating in decisions on job openings
The second area of planning is the participation of HR in the decision about opening a vacancy.
It doesn’t make sense for HR to simply execute the demands for vacancies that come from other areas, since this is (or should be) the area that concentrates and organizes information about people.
Armed with this foundation, you should help to identify whether there is really a need to create a vacancy or if the needs of the sector are, in fact, different.
An area that does not deliver all the results may experience, for example, a drop in performance or a conflict that has impacted performance.
The creation of new positions is not necessarily the solution and it is the role of people management professionals to clarify this decision through concrete data and information.
Having an overview of the provision of vacancies
As for the third scope, the ideal scenario is for HR to have an overview of all the vacancies that will be open in the company for a period.
Thus, it is easier to plan to start the selection processes at the appropriate time, without living according to urgent demands, which must be sporadic.
Define recruitment and selection techniques
With a well-established plan, the next step is to define which methods will be used both to recruit candidates and to select employees.
Generally, companies have some basic steps that are replicated in all selection processes . For example, they always advertise the vacancy on LinkedIn, do dynamics and interview.
This is an interesting strategy, but you also need to know when to use different techniques and which methods can enrich the process.
The options—both for recruitment and selection—are diverse. We will go into these possibilities of steps in the next topic, detailing each one.
In addition to thinking about which steps will be used, it is important to define how much time will be spent on each of them and agree a deadline for closing with the manager.
It is also important to check what financial investments will be needed, if any, and what other resources will be used.
You may, for example, need the support of the marketing team to spread the word or spend financial resources on administering a psychological test.
The important thing is to define all this in advance, to avoid unforeseen events and not to show disorganization.
Evaluate the results
Many people believe that the process of recruiting and selecting people ends with filling the vacancy.
But analyzing and evaluating the results after the person has been assigned to their position is a crucial step. It serves to feed the recruitment and selection of information so that the process is increasingly effective.
This evaluation of results must be done through indicators, which will show critical points of recruitment and selection and enable continuous improvement .
Some of the interesting indicators to follow within this subsystem are:
- average time of closing vacancies;
- percentage of vacancies closed on time;
- ramp-up time (how long the selected employee reached the desired performance, that is, how long it took to learn the service, adapt and produce well);
- turnover (especially of newcomers);
- average length of stay of selected employees;
- percentage of candidates who came from each dissemination channel;
- engagement of candidates in the stages of the process;
- hiring cost ;
- percentage of accepted proposals;
- performance of each recruiter.
If you haven’t analyzed any of them yet, reflect on which ones apply to your reality and collect them on a regular basis. Over time, you will be able to build comparison bases, set goals and refine your recruitment and selection process.
