Recruitment and Selection Techniques for Organizational Success

Introduction

Recruitment is a form of business competition, and it is fiercely contested. Organizations must be strategic in order to attract and retain top talent for positions within the company. Competition between companies has grown even more intense, and organizations are doing everything they can to secure the best people. It is therefore important to have a well-defined recruitment policy in place — one that can be executed effectively to find the best fit for each vacant position. Selecting the wrong candidate or rejecting the right one could prove to be costly mistakes. Companies understand that having the right people will ultimately make the difference between success and failure. Recruitment and selection is an ongoing process (Wilson, 2013), and businesses must determine both present and future organizational requirements while increasing the success rate of the process by reducing the number of unqualified candidates.

Regardless of the size of a firm or the industry it operates in, recruiting and selecting people with strategically relevant abilities is more important than ever. Companies are trying to attract top talent while keeping recruitment costs to a minimum. Recruiting techniques have evolved considerably over the years, with social media now being one of the top methods of attracting candidates. A diversifying enterprise necessitates recruiting and selecting the right kind of candidates for employment (Dwoskin, Squire, & Patullo, 2014). While recruitment and selection are often used interchangeably, recruitment refers to the process of identifying prospective candidates, whereas selection refers to choosing the right candidate from among them.

Recruitment and selection is an important process in every organization, as it provides the crucial human resources that companies depend on. It allows a company to attract and retain the best talent, enabling it to gain competitive advantage. The process of scrutinizing candidates to choose the best one — commonly referred to as the selection process — is of extreme importance (Buse, 2009). If a company does not choose the right candidate, it loses its competitive edge due to a weakness in its human resources. Recruitment, which involves identifying the right talent, attracting that talent, and providing global opportunities, is also essential because it allows organizations to analyze the talent market and take the appropriate steps toward attracting and retaining the best employees.

For many companies, human resources are of extreme importance in ensuring organizational success (Sawa & Swift, 2013). This review presents the literature on how recruitment and selection processes help companies succeed, examining the contribution of essential skills, values, and other attributes to understand the importance of accurate and effective recruitment and selection to a company's overall performance.

Many scholars have studied the factors that bring business success, focusing largely on functional areas such as finance, marketing, and production. Although human resources have long been embraced as critical to business success, there has been relatively little focus on how HR practices specifically influence key success factors (Iles, 2007). It is important to examine the relationship between human resource recruiting and selection and the success of companies.

Link Between Human Resources and Company Success

Bowen, Ledford, and Nathan (1991) defined the essential function of human resources as the factor that makes businesses viable. Human resources enable a company to find the best facilities, equipment, financial support, and legal framework within which to operate successfully. They also enable the company to manage other resources effectively and efficiently, and to develop and refine the business plan toward long-term success.

Buse (2009) studied the role of entrepreneurs and managers in company success and found that management goals, the founding process, and firm characteristics — including risk tolerance — are among the most important determinants of business success. Other scholars found that where the manager or owner gave high levels of commitment, including financial support, new ventures were more likely to succeed (Sawa & Swift, 2013). The people a company hires from the outset also greatly influence its success, since they are central to selling the product or service. According to Holehonnur and Pollock (2012), human resources are essential in ensuring the practicality and feasibility of a business venture, providing competitive advantage, and influencing pricing, marketing, and production strategies toward greater efficiency. Staffing decisions also affect the company's ability to secure financing, since some investors base their decisions on the perceived capability of the management team. Therefore, the right mix of employees is important to ensure success (Makraiova, Woolliscroft, Caganova, & Cambal, 2013).

Studies on why organizations fail have also cited poor human resources as a major factor. Holehonnur and Pollock (2012) found that a lack of objective employee evaluation during recruitment can lead to financial unsoundness, ignorance of legal issues, lack of competitive advantage, and poor understanding of the company's technical requirements. Other failure factors linked to poor human resources include poor timing, flawed product or service design, inappropriate distribution strategies, unclear business objectives, excessive debt, and failure to function as an effective team. Bowen et al. (1991) add that where a company's human resources are ineffective, there is often a lack of management skills, poor strategic direction, and insufficient capitalization — all of which can lead to business failure.

Johnson and Guetal (2013) similarly argue for the critical importance of human resources as a determinant of future success or failure. They contend that management practices define the company's products and services and create the competitive advantage that enables success. From the very beginning of recruiting and selection, it is important for the company to deploy effective strategies to ensure it picks the right talent aligned with its growth vision and overall business direction.

Fathi, Wilson, and Cheokas (2011) argue that there is a meaningful difference between how large and small companies use their human resources. Small firms are more reliant on the vision of their employees and on their ability to attract and retain staff at all levels. Large organizations, by contrast, place greatest emphasis on managerial talent. Management in large organizations is most critical in setting business direction, whereas in small organizations — where employee numbers are limited — attracting and retaining employees at every level matters because each person shapes the organization's culture and trajectory.

However, Dwoskin et al. (2014) argue that there is little meaningful difference between large and small companies in this regard. Regardless of size, all organizations benefit from improving employee skills and motivation, and the capability of employees at all levels determines organizational success.

Wilson (2013) notes that human resource research consistently shows the cost of replacing an employee is approximately 1.5 to 2 times that employee's annual salary. In a competitive environment where cost leadership is a priority, hiring replacements is an unpopular but sometimes necessary choice. The author also highlights the reputational damage that frequent employee turnover can cause: when companies hire replacements, trust must be rebuilt with customers from the ground up — a situation growth-oriented companies should strive to avoid, as it slows momentum.

Research also provides evidence that effective hiring practices are critical to remaining competitive in a rapidly changing technology environment (Walker et al., 2013). Comprehensive studies show a strong relationship between the use of technology in hiring and the tendency of new hires to contribute to the company's IT-driven growth. Revels and Morris (2012) also present a compelling case for integrating technology into hiring practices to meet evolving human resource needs.

Corporate Strategy and Human Resource Alignment

Fathi et al. (2011) argue that in defining corporate strategy, organizations must align it with their human resource strategy. Human resources are of extreme importance in defining the diversity of the company's portfolio, making key decisions about business ventures, and setting corporate direction. Bowen et al. (1991) add that human resources bring sustainable competitive advantage by enabling the company to adapt its corporate strategy in response to changes in the business environment.

A company's human resources help it achieve the key drivers of success: superior quality, efficiency, innovation, and customer service. These drivers are realized through human resources as a tangible asset that builds organizational capability (Robbins, 2005). By securing the best human resources, the company can create complex, value-generating interactions that put it on a successful trajectory.

For continuous improvement, human resources — in the form of self-reliant, motivated, and goal-oriented individuals — help companies adopt best practices and foster innovation (Jankovic, 2014). They also encourage healthy internal competition and teamwork. To achieve this, companies must hire individuals who are self-motivated, high-performing, and capable of meeting and exceeding expectations.

When a company pursues a cost leadership strategy, its human resources are central to making that strategy work. The company should hire employees who can deliver in a cost-efficient manner, accept incentive systems that reward cost-effective performance, and align personal interests with those of the business.

When a company pursues a differentiation strategy, its human resources must create and communicate value for the company's products and services through innovation. Employees in this environment should embrace the challenge of value creation and accept performance measures that hold them accountable for product and service differentiation (Ho, Lee, & Wu, 2009).

When a company changes its business strategy, several other components must shift in parallel to support the new direction. With growing pressure to increase customer value and gain competitive advantage, organizations face significant challenges in realigning their business processes (Odom, 2013). Hiring practices must evolve accordingly, and existing employees must be re-oriented to maintain retention. As Revels and Morris (2012) describe, an organization that empowers its employees toward improved productivity is better positioned to execute a new strategy. The company's recruitment and selection strategies must therefore reflect the business strategy at every stage. Senior management and all employees need to share the same direction in their decision-making.

According to Johnson and Guetal (2013), companies with deeply embedded human resource strategies may find that a major shift in corporate strategy creates disruption that is difficult to absorb, potentially lowering employee retention and making it harder to attract the right talent. The company may also invest considerable time refocusing its HR strategy to align with the new organizational direction. Nevertheless, this challenge is countered by the fundamental importance of human resources to company success: employees must have a clear understanding of the business strategy for the company to achieve its goals (Blizzard, 2013), and the hiring process must be reshaped accordingly.

References

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